


The Poetry of Time and Space

by sunkelles



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Adventures in Space and Time, Alright I'm Done Now, Annabeth Chase Makes a Great Doctor, Because It's a Crossover, Crossover, Did I Mention That It's a Crossover?, F/F, Femslash, Lesbians in Space, This Typing Style Makes Everything Look Like a Fall Out Boy Song Title, Time Travelling Lesbians, Various Other Characters That I'm Too Lazy To Tag, slow building relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-08
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2017-12-18 03:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 27,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/875129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunkelles/pseuds/sunkelles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Piper meets the strange and elusive doctor, her life will never be the same again, but then again, she's not sure that she wants it to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Piper

Piper walked through the crowded mall alone. She heard the hustle and bustle of people moving all around her. Even surrounded by so many people, Piper felt both bored and alone. She wondered why she even bothered coming to the mall.  
“It’s slightly better than sitting at home alone watching _SpongeBob_ ,” she thought somewhat bitterly as she continued walking. A Green Day song played in the background as Piper passed many stores she had no interest in browsing. Out of sheer boredom, she readjusted her old jean jacket. She wasn’t even sure why she was wearing it. The jacket was entirely too hot for the San Francisco climate in the middle of the summer.  
She passed a storefront that had been empty for months, and noticed that its lights were on. The sign above the door read _Aunty Em’s Gnome Emporia_. She took a tentative look inside of it. Inside, there were many statues and they were all of humans. It sent a tingle down her spine and part of Piper thought, _this is an awful idea,_ but the other more daring part didn’t give a shit. She had nothing to lose from looking at an old woman’s statuary, so she took her first steps into the store.

It was strange. There were no other people in the store. Normally, people would flock to a new store just to see what it had to offer. Piper browsed the aisles of human statues and began to realize that they were almost horrifyingly realistic. Piper stepped towards one. It was of a young girl, probably somewhere between eight and ten years old. She had short, straight hair, and was clad in jeans and a t-shirt. Every curve in her face resembled that of a real person, her lips, her slightly crooked teeth, her nose, and her eyes. Something about her eyes gave the impression that the statue was terrified, as if she was _dying_. Piper took a step away from the statue and decided to walk away from it, deeper into the Emporium. She could have sworn she’d heard an extra pair of footsteps as she walked away.

“This store is huge,” Piper thought after walking for what seemed like ten more minutes. She could hear a _Katy Perry_ song playing softly in the distance. She had been in this store for three songs and she had yet to even reach the back of it. She was still ten feet from the end of the next aisle. Her footsteps continued to sound louder than they normally do, and she was seriously freaking out. She took a deep breath, and stopped walking. The footsteps continued. She looked behind her, but she didn’t see a person. No, Piper saw the terrified statue girl that she had examined earlier, and she was walking straight towards her. Piper took a moment to reprimand herself. It was probably just someone pulling a prank. She told herself to keep calm.  
“Hey,” said Piper, “you got me. Good prank. Now could you please stop that?” The girl didn’t stop. She didn’t remove her mask. She just continued to stalk towards Piper. In response, Piper started to back up. A moment later, she felt her back bump up against something that was neither the shelf nor another human. She turned around and saw another statue. It was a man, around the age of forty, and Piper screamed. She ducked her head under his large stone arms, and started to run towards the back of the store as the rest of the statues awoke around her.

“Fuck,” she muttered as she tried to find a way out of the store. Everywhere she turned, there was a statue. She had barely escaped the grasps of four of them and she wasn’t sure how much longer she could evade them. She let out a scream of frustration, and saw a beautiful sight at the end of the aisle. Another human, a blonde woman, was coming to her aide.  
“Over here!” Piper yelled, throwing her arms up in the air.  
“Coming,” the woman said.  
“She has an accent,” Piper thought, “British maybe?” She pushed away the thought and started trying to fight off the things that she concluded must be robots. In her right hand, the woman clutched something that looked like a screwdriver and Piper wondered how that could possibly help in this situation. Something shot out of it, a bolt of light or energy or something along those lines and the robot it hit flinched back. Piper decided that she would never doubt the power of a screwdriver again.  
Piper was almost completely cornered and the things were clawing at her. She tried to duck under one statue’s arm in order to get closer to the woman. Instead, the robot caught her by the back of her jacket, and Piper slid out of its grasp. Piper stumbled into her savior who grabbed her by the arm. The woman was shooting laser bolts at the statues/robots/things while they ran towards the back of the store. A statue, an old woman, tried to grab Piper by the arm but she yanked her arm away. A second later, Piper saw their salvation, an emergency door at the back of the Emporium. She pushed the door open and allowed the other woman through before slamming it.  
“We need something to keep it shut,” the woman said, her voice sure. Piper glanced down at the pavement. They were in a narrow alleyway, maybe three-foot wide, and beside them, there was a metal staircase. The bottom section seemed to be about the same length as the width of the alley. Piper heard a noise, and she went to hold the door shut.  
“I have an idea,” Piper said, pushing her weight against the door, “but we need to use your screw driver thingy.”  
“Tell me,” the woman demanded, and Piper told her. The woman climbed the metal staircase, and when she was on the rung right above where she had decided to make the cut, she started to unscrew the ladder. It fell to the ground in a swift motion, and the woman jumped down after it. She positioned it in a way that it spanned from the wall of the alley to the emergency exit. Piper left her post by the door and let out a sigh of relief. For the first time since entering the Emporium, she felt safe.  
For the first time since meeting the woman, Piper took a good look at her. The woman was fairly tall, maybe six inches taller than Piper. She was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and black converses. The woman had an unbuttoned red plaid shirt over a black t-shirt. She had gorgeous blonde curls that were partially blocked by a Yankees cap.  
Piper laughed, and then she asked, “What’s with the Yankee’s cap? Your accent sounds British.”  
“I’m not British,” the woman said, rolling her gray eyes, “and I’m not American either.”  
“Then what are you?” Piper asked, looking the woman in her stormy gray eyes.  
“What do you think I am?” she asked with a small smirk.  
“You didn’t answer my question,” Piper demanded, “who and/or what are you?”  
"I'm the doctor," the woman said, “and who are you?”  
"Piper McLean,” she said, and then she paused for a moment.  
“But the doctor?” asked Piper in confusion, “Just the doctor? Doctor what?"  
"I'm the doctor, just the doctor," she said, "not that it matters. We won't meet again."  
Piper looked away for moment, trying to think of a witty diatribe to use in response, but when she looked back, the doctor was gone, curly blonde hair, plaid top, proud smirk and all.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
When Piper had finished walking back to her apartment, she went to her fridge. Stuck to the fridge was a small pink sticky note that read:  
 **Staying with your Uncle Joe in L.A for a few days, got an audition.**  
 **Sorry, Pipes-**  
 **Love,**  
 **Dad**

Piper rolled her eyes. She hadn’t actually expected her dad to be home that night, but he could have at least called her to let her know instead of just leaving a sticky note. She took out a can of Pepsi and went to her room, plopping down at her chair. She logged into her laptop and started Google chrome. Piper turned on her battered I-pod, and a _My Chemical Romance_ song started to play. She hastily typed “doctor” into her search bar, but only received various pages for people in the medical field. She typed “the doctor” and received similar results. Piper tried various combinations, including, “doctor alien”, “doctor British,” and “doctor Yankees cap” to disappointing results. She let out a frustrated groan. She was never going to figure out what was going on at this rate.

Suddenly, Piper had an idea. She took a stab in the dark, and searched “doctor alien”. Apparently, that was specific enough, because the first result was a page that read: _the doctor: Origin unknown._ It was the website of a man named Charles that dedicated his life to finding out information about this doctor. The page contained the caption and a blurry and distorted photo of someone Piper knew to be the doctor. At the bottom of the page, there was a number to call if you had spotted the doctor. Piper decided to call this man and arrange a meeting time.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In a convenient twist of fate, Charles Beckendorf lived not only in San Francisco, but within walking distance from Piper's own apartment. She saw a small house with the address on the door, and she rang the doorbell. Piper stood on the porch, examining the house's red bricks when a young dark-skinned boy answered the door.

"Dad," he said, "it's for you." He then retreated up the carpeted staircase and Piper was left alone in the entry way. She looked nervously around the room, and noticed a pale-skinned woman with curly black hair walking towards her.

"Um, hi," she said, "I'm here to see Charles."

The gorgeous woman sent her a confused look and then realization dawned on her.

"Oh," she said, "you're here about the aliens. Come with me." The woman led her though the house and out to the back yard where there was a small shed.

"Charlie," she said, opening the door, "she's here about the aliens."

"Thanks, Silena," he replied, "well hello, Piper."

"Hey, Luke," Piper said, because she didn't know what else to say.

"So you want to talk about the doctor?" Charlie asked, and Piper just nodded. Charlie walked to his filing cabinet and dug out a blurry picture of the doctor.

"Is this your doctor?" he asked.

"Yes," said Piper, "that's her." After that, he started pulling various pictures out of files. He held the photographs in his dark, calloused hands. The first was a picture of the famous concert at Woodstock, and the doctor's blonde head and Yankees cap were clearly visible in the background of the photo. The next was a photograph of people rejoicing after the end of WWII. Yet again, she could clearly see the doctor. Piper was getting a little freaked out.

"If you dig deep enough and really examine the information," Charlie stated, holding out another group of pictures for her to look at, "the doctor pops up just about everywhere. Famous photos, conspiracy theories, political diaries, normal diaries, and even in ghost stories. She seems to be imbedded into everything." The photos were all from various time periods and Piper could clearly see the doctor in each and every one of them.

"What do you think she is?" asked Piper, biting her lip.

"I think that she's an immortal alien," said Charlie. Then he paused a moment before continuing, "How did you find out about her?"

"I met her," Piper said, "She saved my life." Piper felt like she was talking to a complete loon, but considering the fact that she had been attacked by statues she didn't have much room to talk.

"She was here?" Charlie asked, looking to the ceiling, "God help us all."

"What does it mean?" Piper demanded.

"The doctor is an enigma woven into human history," Charlie said, examining her in terror, "When disaster strikes, so does she. Destruction follows in her wake and God help us all if she was in San Francisco." Piper took a deep breath and walked away, trying to gather her thoughts.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Piper sat down on a park bench and tried to process the things that had happened to her over the past few days. The robots, the doctor, the conspiracy theorist, everything had happened so suddenly and the realization was finally dawning on her. This was all real and her life was pandemonium. Nothing made any sense anymore. She starred out into the park at the maple trees and flowers and wondered how the world just kept on spinning while her own world was falling apart. Her very perceptions of the universe and life itself were being put to the test and she didn’t know what to do.  
“ _Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?_ ” she sang softly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar head, blonde and clad in a Yankees cap. She got off of the park bench and stalked towards the woman.  
Piper stepped into the woman’s line of sight and in her most confident tone of voice, she said, “I want answers.”  
"How do you keep finding me?" asked the doctor, her curly blonde hair blowing in the breeze.  
"I don't really know," Piper admitted, "but why were those robots or-or whatever the fuck hey were after me!?”  
"They weren't after you," the docotor said with a prideful look, "they were after me. And they weren't robots, either. They were humans."  
“Humans,” said Piper with a hint of terror in her voice. The fear in the girl’s eyes had been real. Somehow all of those people had been turned to stone.  
“How did this happen?” Piper asked, “Who has been doing this?”  
“A sort of alien called a gorgon,” she said, “which has the power to turn other beings into stone to do his/her bidding.”  
“Well what are you going to do about this,” Piper said, taking a step towards her, “you can’t just leave them as statues.”  
“The attacks have become more frequent,” the dcotor said, “and I think that the gorgon is going to strike tonight. She’ll want somewhere out in the open, so she can change a great number of people at the same time. Somewhere lots of people travel quickly and easily so it can ensnare as many as possible.” Piper looked to the skyline, and saw the Golden Gate Bridge about a mile away.  
“The bridge,” Piper muttered.  
“Brilliant,” the doctor exclaimed.  
“Well how do we stop it?” Piper demanded.  
“I have an antidote,” the doctor said, “if I inject it with this, then it will die and the people will be cured.”  
“I’m coming with you,” Piper said.  
“Don’t be an idiot;” said the doctor, “you’ll probably be hit by a car.”  
“We started this mess together,” said Piper, “And we’re finishing it that way too.”  
“Fine,” said the doctor, “do you have any reflective surfaces, a mirror or something?”  
Piper took out her I-pod and starred at the shiny back side.  
“That’ll work,” the doctor started to walk towards the bridge, “if it turns out you’re deadweight then this is the end. Got it?” Piper glared at her, but followed anyway.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Piper walked beside the doctor in silence and starred out onto the Pacific Ocean, the sun glimmering on the waves. It was lovely, really, and Piper wondered why she had never paid attention to it before. The sunlight dancing on the bay’s waves was truly stunning, but Piper supposed that near-death experiences gave one a greater appreciation of life. They were almost halfway across the bridge, and Piper heard cars screeching to a halt.  
“Avert your eyes,” said the doctor, pulling a mirror and a hypodermic needle from the pocket of her plaid jacket. There were lines of cars stopped, and Piper heard a few crashing off in the distance. Piper held out her I-pod and started into the fray. She heard footsteps and crashing. She saw statue people struggling to get out of their cars. Piper could see the alien’s reflection in her I-pod now. She was hideous. She had a human shape, but her skin was green and her eyes were an obsidian shade of black. That was before Piper noticed the living, hissing snakes growing out of her head like a serious case of unruly curly hair. She saw the doctor approaching from behind the creature, but it had already started to walk towards Piper.  
“So, little girl,” she hissed, “it seems you know my secret. A single glance can turn anyone to stone.” Piper glanced nervously down at her I-pod screen, and she saw the doctor sneaking up behind the creature. Piper had to buy her time, and she had an idea, an insane, suicidal, where-did-this-even-come-from idea, but an idea nonetheless.  
“I’m Medusa,” she said, putting a hand on Piper’s shoulder, “and my face will be the last you ever see.” Piper took a deep breath and quickly turned around, dropping her I-pod and pulling Medusa into a tight bear hug. She obstructed Medusa with her arms, and Piper could feel her panicking.  
“What are you doing,” Piper heard the creature scream as the world melted around her.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Piper felt like she was awakening from a deep, dreamless sleep when she finally opened her eyes. She was lying on the pavement, surrounded by cars. These cars drivers’ were all in a similar predicament to Piper herself, and for a moment, Piper worried if they were alright. They just seemed sleepy, not dead, so she allowed her eyes to wander.  
She saw the doctor leaning on a car beside her.  
“It’s about time you woke up,” the doctor said, “I understand that you were a bit knackered after having been turned to stone, but you could have had the courtesy to wake up after half an hour.”  
“How long was I out,” Piper asked, trying to sit up.  
“An hour,” the doctor said with a smirk.  
“You big baby,” Piper replied, rolling her eyes.  
“Come on,” the doctor said, holding out her hand, “I’ll help you up.” Piper grabbed it, and she was pulled to her feet.  
“You’re going back to wherever it is you came from, I assume,” Piper said, as the two walked away from the colossal traffic jam that they had partially caused.  
“Yes,” said the doctor, “and you’re welcome to come with me, if you’d like. You proved that you were anything but deadweight back there. Quick thinking, Piper.” Piper had a feeling that most of the doctor’s adventures went something like this: life-threating adventures, adrenaline rushes and aliens. Piper wasn’t sure that she could handle it. She was a bit afraid. Yet, now that Piper had a taste of the adventures she could have with the doctor, she wasn't sure she could say no.  
"Where are we going?" Piper asked.  
The doctor grabbed her hand, "I'll show you."  
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
"A phone booth?” asked Piper, "not to judge or anything, but what are we going to do in a phone box? Call a cab? Or are we flying to the moon?" She would have made a joke about having a make-out session, but Piper wasn't sure how the doctor would react to that just yet.  
“If you want to," the doctor replied, shrugging. She opened the door and stepped in. Piper reluctantly followed her.  
Instead of the tiny room that Piper had expected, she was greeted by a large, open hall. The walls curved inward to give the room a domed feeling. Circular indentions lined the walls. In the middle stood what looked to be a control station with a pillar sticking out of the top.  
Piper was sure that her eyes widened in shock.  
"I-It's huge," she stuttered. She opened the door and looked around the outside of the box to make sure that her eyes didn’t deceive her. The box was just as small on the outside as Piper had originally thought. She opened the door and was yet again greeted by an enormous room.  
“It’s bigger on the inside,” Piper said in amazement, drinking in the sight.  
“ _To see a world in a grain of sand,_  
 _And a heaven in a wild flower,_  
 _Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,_  
 _And eternity in an hour._ ” the doctor said.  
“What?” Piper asked.  
“It’s Blake, William Blake,” said the doctor, “I think it describes the tardis fairly well.”  
“Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,” repeated Piper. She took a tentative step towards what seemed to be the controls and gently touched one.  
“It’s beautiful,” said Piper.  
"I know," said the doctor, "she's beautiful, isn't she? The tardis is amazing."  
"And this is all inside a blue phone-booth?" Piper asked.  
"Police box to be more exact," she corrected, "but yeah."  
"What exactly is a tardis?" Piper asked, taking a reluctant look around, whatever a tardis was.  
The doctor replied, "Tardis stands for time and relative dimensions in space.”  
"It's a time machine and a space ship all in one? Inside a blue box?" Piper asked.  
"Pretty much," the doctor replied.  
"This is the most astonishing thing I've ever seen," she said, breathlessly.  
"Since it's your first trip," the doctor said, "you can decide where we go. Forward or back?"  
"Back," Piper said with a grin, "we have to go back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Selected quotes are taken from Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and William Blake's Auguries of Innocence.


	2. The Unhappy Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and the doctor try to travel to Renaissance Era Spain. They end up in the right place, but the wrong time and they meet an unusual alien and his companion who are in dire need of assistance.

"Please," Piper said, scrutinizing the tardis' vast collection of clothes, "remind me again why I have to wear a terribly scratchy dress while you're just wearing jeans and a plaid over shirt?"

"Because, I'm the doctor," she said, "and I don't do all that "proper period attire" rubbish."

"And I have to?" asked Piper, raising her eyebrow.

"Well," she replied, "assuming that we get separated, they're less likely to execute you if you're dressed appropriately." Piper didn't have a witty retort to that, so she stopped complaining about the dress' scratchy scarlet fabric.

"Where exactly are we, anyway?" Piper asked, as she slid into the red dress.

"Madrid, Spain," the doctor said, "1604, the height of the Spanish Golden Age." Piper opened the doors to the tardis. She was greeted to the sight of a market place more akin to what one might see in Aladdin than what she expected of Renaissance era Spain.

"Doctor," Piper asked as the doctor shut the tardis door, "Where are we?"

"Spain, somewhere from the 700's to the early 1300's," said the doctor, "during the period of Islamic Rule."

"Is that good?" Piper asked cautiously.

"People refer to this as a golden age as well," said the doctor shrugging, "I'm sure we'll be fine. Islamic architecture is stunning. You might as well change, though. I have no idea what people wore during this time period."

* * *

She and the doctor were met with the glares of many people as they bustled around the market place. The place was busy, people running every direction, and shouting things in- _English,_ Piper thought skeptically _, The people in medieval Islamic ruled Spain are speaking English?_

"Doctor," Piper asked, "these people are speaking English."

"No," said the doctor, "the tardis is translating their speech, and it translates yours too. If you speak, they'll hear Spanish."

"I think that's so cool," Piper said sarcastically, "and not at all an invasion of privacy." Piper wasn't too fond of the idea of the tardis frolicking around inside her head and translating her thoughts.

"Do you want to end up speaking gibberish to these people?" the doctor asked her.

"Not really," Piper admitted, as she bumped shoulders with a veil clad woman.

Piper strained to see above the crowd. On the horizon she could see beautiful stone spires reaching towards the sky. Piper and the doctor tried to navigate towards the building through the large clump of people. After a few minutes of walking, they were close enough for Piper to see the building clearly. There was a beautiful dome topping it with a spire on either side. There were many doors on the front of said building creating an elegant and welcoming entrance.

"It's gorgeous," Piper said.

"It's too bad that so many of the mosques were destroyed when the Catholics regained control," the doctor mused, "they were right amazing architectural feats." Piper looked at her a moment.

"Though," she said with a pained looked on her face, "I suppose that's what happens when something is conquered. It's eradicated, erased from history." Piper decided not to ask the doctor what was troubling her because it would probably cause more of the doctor's painful memories to resurface. Piper pulled her eyes away from the mosque, and looked towards the rest of the city. There were various buildings built in a similar, but certainly less fancy, style to the mosque.

"Come along," said the doctor, "let's go exploring."

* * *

The doctor led Piper out of the crowd. They ended up walking through a dirt alleyway behind the buildings. The sun was not as high in the sky as it had been earlier, so was probably late afternoon to early evening.

"So do you do this a lot?" Piper asked, "end up in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"That's pretty much all I do," the doctor replied.

Piper took a large step to avoid stepping in a puddle.

"Do you ever get lonely?" asked Piper, "traveling alone through time and space."

"I used to, sometimes," said the doctor, and she let the sentence lie. Piper knew what the rest of the sentence would have been:  _now I've got you._ The thought made Piper smile. She had only known he doctor for a few days, but it seemed like so much longer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a boy slink into the alleyway. Then he slipped through the backdoor of a large building.

"I wonder what he's up to," Piper said.

"Let's find out," the doctor said, heading towards the door.

The doctor grabbed the door handle and opened it up. The room was spacious and bits of dust danced around in the beams of sunlight. She took another step inside and saw something much more startling: an enormous, bronze dragon. She let out a wail. The doctor stiffened beside her.

"An automation," she said, "I thought they went extinct." The dragon, automation, whatever it was turned to face them. The boy ran in front of them and petted the dragon on the nose. He had curly black hair and was wearing a tunic that was only a few shades darker than his tanned skin tone.

"Easy, Festus," he said, "they aren't going to hurt you."

"You've got a dragon," said Piper, "a real dragon."

The boy's face contorted into a look of fear, very similar to the one in the eyes' of the statue.

"Please," he asked, "don't tell anyone. Festus is friendly, he wouldn't hurt anyone. He's just broken and I'm trying to fix him."

"You're trying to fix him," the doctor asked, "I could help you with that."

"How would you know how to fix him?" asked the boy skeptically.

"Because I'm the doctor," she said and then the dragon stared at her.

The dragon's ruby eyes looked directly at the doctor.

"The doctor?" it asked in a robotic voice.

"Of course it talks," Piper muttered.

"Yes," she said, "that's me."  
"Last of the timelords," he said. Piper wondered what that meant. She and the doctor had yet to have the  _where are you from_ talk, but from the sound of it, that topic of conversation wouldn't be pleasant when it was finally brought up.

"Are you the last of the automations as well," asked the doctor.

"Sadly," it said in that robotic monotone, "I am, and I am broken. My wing is decimated and I cannot leave this place." The automation turned and Piper saw his wing. It was folded up like an accordion.

"Can you help him," the boy asked with pleading eyes.

"I'm almost certain that I can," the doctor said, smiling at him, "would you like me to fix you today or tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," Festus said, "I would like some time to say goodbye to Leo."

_That must be the boy's name,_  Piper thought.

"He could go with you, wherever it is you're going," the doctor said, "this wouldn't have to be goodbye."

"I-I can't," Leo said, "this is my home. I can't leave, and Festus can't stay here. If someone found out, there'd be an angry mob with torches and pitchforks surrounding the place before I could say  _help._ I can't."

"Alright," said the doctor, "we'll meet you here tomorrow afternoon." The doctor slipped out the backdoor and Piper followed her.

"What are we going to do now?" asked Piper, looking at the sky. The sun was about to set. They needed to figure out what they were doing for the night.

"We'll find an inn," the doctor said, "I'm fairly sure there will be a room for us."

* * *

The innkeeper stared at the two women in surprise. Piper suspected that they were an odd sight, two women traveling together in Islamic Spain clad in blue jeans, converses and modern t-shirts.

"You say you're from the East?" asked the man scrutinizing the oddly clad women.

"Yes," said the doctor. She grabbed a slip of blank, white paper out of her pocket and held it out to him.

"Oh," he said, his eyes widening, "yes. You can most certainly have a room." He led them down a hallway and started to open the door to a room.

"What was that," Piper whispered, "that paper was blank."

"Physic paper," the doctor whispered, "it shows people whatever I need them to see." The door swung open and revealed a small bedroom.

"I hope you enjoy your stay," he said, leaving the two to themselves. Piper took a step inside the room and the doctor followed suit. The first thing she noticed was the first bed. It had a dark brown blanket that appeared to be fairly scratchy. When Piper scanned the room to find the other bed, she noticed that there wasn't one. The room had only one bed. She sent Annabeth a skeptical look, but the woman just shrugged.

"I've been in worse inns," the doctor said, sitting herself down on the bed. Piper looked at the scratchy brown blanket. She looked at the doctor just lounging on the twin sized bed. Then she looked at the floor. Maybe she could sleep on it and avoid the awkward situation of sleeping in the same bed with the doctor. But the floor looked so hard and uncomfortable compared to the bed. She let out a sigh and gave in. Piper sat down on the opposite side from the doctor. Piper thought of putting out the candle then remembered something from earlier.

"Doctor," Piper said.

"Yeah, Piper," the doctor replied.

"Festus," Piper said, "he said you were a timelord?" Piper knew that she wasn't going to enjoy this conversation, but if she didn't get it out of the way now, she might never bring it up again.

"Piper," the doctor said, a hint of pain tinting her voice, "I'm right zonked right now. Could we talk about this tomorrow?" Piper considered easing off after that, but trekked forward.

"Doctor," she asserted, "if I'm going to be traveling with you I need to know these things. What is a timelord? Where are you from?"

The doctor sighed, and it seemed like she was digging through painful memories.

"It means that I come from the planet Gallifrey, and I traverse time," the doctor said in a tone that suggested this topic of conversation was through. Piper decided to let it rest for now, but would certainly be asking more about it later, especially the automation's comment,  _last of the timelords._

Piper put out the candle and lay down, her hand nearly touching the doctor's, and the she willed herself to fall asleep under the itchy covers.

* * *

Piper woke up with her head burrowed in blonde hair and her arms wrapped around someone's waist. She almost moved herself once she realized that she had been cuddling the doctor, but the embrace felt so warm and comforting that she couldn't tear herself away just yet. She buried her face back into the woman's vanilla scented hair and went back to sleep.

* * *

The next time that she awoke from her dreamless sleep, the doctor was gently shaking her.

"Piper," she said, "we need to leave."

"What," she muttered groggily as she tried to get her bearings. Then she remembered, the doctor, Spain, and the robot dragon.

"Oh right," she said, "Festus."

"Yeah," the doctor said, "we'd best get moving. I'd prefer to leave Spain before sundown." Piper stretched and then pulled herself off of the lumpy mattress.

The doctor opened the door to Festus' hiding spot, and Piper followed her. She had the strange feeling that they weren't alone, but she shoved it away.

"Hello," Piper said, "are you guys there?" The doctor pointed to the corner where Leo was sleeping on Festus' back. Piper chuckled. The scene was actually adorable. Piper heard footsteps, though neither she nor the doctor were walking, and she thought,  _oh shit._

"D-dragon!" a male voice shouted and Piper turned abruptly around, and saw the boy running away.

"Shite," the doctor cursed, "he'll bring reinforcements with torches and pitchforks. Now we have to hurry." She pulled her screwdriver from her plaid pocket and Piper ran to wake Leo up.

"Leave me alone," Leo grumbled, "sleeping."

"Well if you keep  _sleeping,_ " Piper said, "you'll stop  _living._ Get up now. An angry mob is coming."

"What," he asked, jolting to an upright position.

"Someone followed us in here and saw Festus," the doctor said, "Wake up!" The dragon stirred, and Leo slid off of his bronze back.

"You are here," the dragon's metallic voice said, "you seem distressed. What is going on?"

"Someone saw you," Leo said, stroking the dragon's back. Piper wasn't sure if he was doing it to soothe the automation or himself.

"I don't think we have much time," the doctor said, the slightest hint of panic in her voice, "Festus, tell me. What's all wrong with you?"

The dragon turned its head towards the doctor and said, "my right wing is damaged. I think that it is beyond repair. I cannot fly without it."

"Alright," the doctor said, taking out her screwdriver, "I have an idea." Immediately, they set to work removing both of the dragon's wings. The doctor set the broken wing on top of the other.

"I'm going to use my screwdriver to change the structure of the broken wing," she said, "so that it won't get stuck to the other. Festus, I'm going to need you to breathe fire onto the broken wing."

"And use it as a mold," Piper exclaimed, "that's brilliant!"

"I know," the doctor replied with a smirk. Festus took a few steps forward and started to breathe flames onto his broken wing. The dragon had exhaling fire onto the bronze for two minutes before Piper started to hear the shouting.

"They're coming," Leo said, "for the love of Allah, hurry up!" Festus stopped breathing, and they saw that the broken wing had molded to the form of the other.

Leo ran to the door and said, "I'll hold it, but I'm not sure how long it'll hold them off."

"Not long enough for the metal to cool," the doctor said.

"I've got it," Piper said, "Festus, I need you to knock the top wing off of the other one." The dragon moved the cooling wing with his talon.

"First, we're going to attach the one that's already cooled," Piper said.

"Have I mentioned that you're brill today," asked the doctor as she grabbed the end of the wing.

Piper paused a moment as they hoisted the wing into position and then said, "Assuming that means brilliant, then no." The doctor had already attached the wing.

"I don't think it's cooled yet," the doctor said, touching the wing with her foot.

"They're at the door!" Leo shouted, "do the thing now!"

"The thing?" asked Festus, with a face that looked oddly expressive for a dragon.

"Yes," Leo said, putting his all his strength into holding the door back, "the thing!" The doctor grabbed Festus' other wing, a string of odd curses coming out of her mouth, when the door Leo was holding burst open. Leo ran towards them, as Annabeth started to attach the wing. A group of people with various metal tools burst in.

"It's real," one exclaimed, "the dragon's real!"

"Kill it!" screamed another as they started to surround Festus.

"Everyone get on!" she shouted. Piper crawled up the dragon and lent her hand to Leo. She pulled him up as people started stabbing at Festus' lower regions and one tried to climb his tail. Festus swatted his tail down and the man went flying.

"Go, go, go, go, go!" the doctor yelled. Festus started flying and broke through the flimsy thatch roof.

Piper held tightly to the dragon's back to prevent herself from falling as they soared through the sky. The sun was setting and the sky was a canvas with various shades of blue, pink, purple and orange blending together in harmony. They weren't very far above the rooftops, but the world looked different from this angle, startling, new and gigantic. After a minute of flying they were far enough away from that city that Festus felt comfortable setting down.

Festus' mechanical monotone didn't convey the gratitude that Piper was sure he felt when he said, "thank you for your assistance, doctor."

"It's always my pleasure to help a creature in need," the doctor said, smiling at the automation.

"And Leo," he said, turning his attention to his human companion, "thank you for standing by me, helping me, at great risk to yourself."

Leo wrapped his arms around the dragon, as tears fell from his eyes.

"I'm gonna miss you," he said.

"What are your plans for the future?" asked the doctor, "obviously you can't return to Automacia."

"I am going to roam the earth," said Festus, "seeing as I have nowhere else to go."

"You could go with him, Leo," Piper stated.

"I can't," he said.

"Yes you can," she said, conviction flooding her voice, "It might be scary, to leap into the unknown, to go where you don't know and leave your comfort zone behind. But if you're with someone that you care about, it's worth it."

" _For you I would give up everything I have_

_everything I am_ ," the doctor recited.

"But I can't," Leo said.

"You keep saying that," said Piper, rolling her eyes, "I'm not sure you actually know what it means. I assure you that you  _can,_ but what I'm asking is whether or not you  _will._ I can say from experience that it's worth it." She paused her speech for a moment and then looked into his eyes and asked, "Will you?"

He looked at her in awe for a moment, his mouth hanging agape, before he finally responded, "Yeah. I will." The doctor smiled at her and Piper looked to Festus who looked particularly happy for a metal dragon.

Leo hopped on Festus' back and then they started to fly away.

"Thank you!" he shouted back.

Piper yelled, "you're welcome!" in response.

Piper turned to the doctor and smirked, "so that poem you recited. It sounded like a love poem."

"It was," she replied with complete nonchalance.

"You were shipping a boy and his dragon, perv," teased Piper.

"Of course I was," said the doctor, rolling her gray eyes, "they were obviously in love."

Piper sent her a look of extreme confusion.

"Inter-special romances are completely allowed," the doctor said, "by the year 4,529, nearly the entire human population has interbred with some other species."

Piper could have lived without those statistics, but replied, "Alright, alright, I believe you." She tried to shake away the images of Leo and Festus going out on dates and push the question of _how would they even do it_ from her mind. And with that, the two started walking towards the tardis with many more adventures awaiting them on the horizon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's poetry quote wasn't taken from a published poem. It was taken from a poem called Sacrifice Myself For You by an author called Michael68 on Booksie.com. Check it out, it's really good.


	3. The Lotus Eaters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and the doctor travel to futuristic New York City in search of history's greatest coffee. They do find it, but they also find something they hadn't hoped for, a political cautionary tale come alive.

Piper stepped out of the tardis to enormous glass skyscrapers coated in rainbow lights.  
"Where are we?" asked Piper as she turned her head to the sky.

"I believe the more accurate question would be  _when_  are we," the doctor replied with a smirk.

Piper glared at her and the doctor hastily answered her own question, "New York City, 3,703"

"So what happened in New York in 3,703?" Piper asked. Wherever the doctor went, trouble seemed to follow.

"Nothing that I know of," the doctor said, "but I've heard that they have phenomenal coffee in this era. I haven't been to New York in a long time."

Piper gave her a skeptical look and asked, "we traveled through time and space for coffee?"

The doctor asked, "We can, so why wouldn't we?"

"When was the last time you were in New York?" asked Piper.

"A Yankees game in 1910," said the doctor, "they might not have won, but I got this brill hat."

"So that's where the Yankees hat came from," Piper thought with a smile. She didn't really have a response, so Piper followed the doctor into this futuristic metropolis.

* * *

"I'd like one chocolate cappuccino," the doctor told the barista. Piper looked over the menu and all of its obscure types of coffee. She was finally able to settle on an iced vanilla latte. They sat down in a black fabric covered booth close to the window. Piper took her first sip of coffee in the dimly lit café. It was cold on her tongue, and the flavors of vanilla and coffee beans melded nicely together to form a unique sensation. A thousand years down the line it didn't seem like life was all that different, at least that's what Piper thought. There were couples on dates scattered about the store, and people drinking coffee and laughing. A thousand years in the future didn't seem all that different from good old 2013. Piper wondered how her dad was doing. Then it hit her. She was a thousand years in the future. Her dad was dead, and had been for hundreds of years.

"My dad's dead," she whispered under her breath.

The doctor sent her a sympathetic look and then said, "but he's still alive where you're from."

"What does that mean," Piper asked, her throat constricting, a burning feeling consuming it.

The doctor paused a moment, trying to fathom her thoughts into something coherent, and then started, "Time, time isn't linear. It's more like, have you ever had a string of fairy lights?"

At one point, Piper had owned a string of Christmas lights. She assumed that was what the doctor was referring to. She and her dad put them up one year and put them in the closet until the next Christmas. When they tried to take them out again, the lights were tied in knots and tangled beyond the points of recognition and salvageablility.

"Yeah," she said, "they were tied in knots before we'd had them for two years. The lights went every which way."

"That's kind of what time is like," the doctor said, "it twists and turns every which way, sometimes tying itself into knots. It's more like a big, tangly ball of fairy lights than a ruler aided straight line."

"Your point is," Piper asked, the burning sensation returning to her throat.

"Give me your phone," the doctor demanded. Piper took her phone out of her jeans pocket and passed it across the table to her. The doctor took out her sonic screwdriver and starting tinkering with the phone while Piper felt her eyes dampen. Her dad was dead. Her dad was dead and she'd never even said goodbye. He may not have been the world's best dad but he didn't deserve had Piper had done to him. Piper still loved him and how she damned him to worrying for the rest of her life.

"Done," the doctor chimed, passing Piper her phone, "go ahead and call your dad."

"How," Piper asked, the word catching in her throat.

"Just try," the doctor said, glancing at Piper's cell phone. Piper dialed her dad's number, and it rang four times before she heard someone pick up.

"Pipes," came her dad's voice, a hint of worry tinting it, "I was a bit worried when I got back and you weren't home. Where are you?" Piper could feel the relief washing over her, a wave of spring heat after a long, cold winter. She didn't know what to say, but she found herself laughing.

"Piper," he said, the concern more evident now, "Piper are you alright?"

"I'm fine, dad," she said, "I'm just really happy."

"But where are you?" he asked.

"I'm traveling with a friend," she said, her voice sounding overjoyed even to her own ears, "I won't be home for a while."

"What, when did you decide this?" he demanded.

"A few days ago," she said, "but I've had a great time. I'm sorry that I didn't ask you."

She heard him pause a moment, before continuing, "Piper. You're eighteen now, so I can't really tell you that you can't do this, but I want you to promise me you'll be safe."

"I will, dad," she said, tears of joy cascading down her cheeks, "I promise."

"Alright, Pipes," he said, "I love you."

"I love you too, dad," she said, hanging up her phone. The doctor smiled at her, and she took another sip of her watered down coffee. A waiter stopped in front of their booth.

"Would you like a lotus flower?" he asked in a monotone.

"No thank you," Piper replied.

"They are free," he said, holding a tray of flowers out for Piper to look at. Piper starred at the flowers for a moment and decided that no, she didn't want one.

"No thanks," she said. The man shoved a flower into Piper's face.

"Eat the flower," he said. Piper and the doctor met eyes, and they both hopped over the back of their respective ends of the booth. They ran out of the building with the man not far behind.

* * *

"The fuck was that thing," Piper asked between pants. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the man was still following them.

"Still following us, apparently," Piper muttered. Her lungs felt like they were about to burst from all of this running. She felt someone grab her arm and drag her into an alleyway.

"What are two doing?" asked the woman who had dragged her here. She had almost luminous green eyes and innumerable freckles. Her curly red hair was tangled and matted.

"What is going on here," Piper demanded, looking the woman straight in the eyes, "we just got here and people started attacking us! Trying to force us to eat some sort of flower."

"Oh god," the woman said, "you're  _actually_ new here."

"Yes," Piper said, "we have no idea what's going on here."

The woman gave her a sad look and then said, "We might as well start at the beginning. My name is Rachel." They introduced themselves, and then Rachel continued with her story.

She said, "A little over a year ago, a company called Lotus Incorporated started giving out free snacks called Lotus Flowers. Almost everyone took them because they were free. A few of us were skeptical, like me, but most people just took them. The effects were obvious. Everyone has been in a drug-induced stupor for the last eight months."

"Shit," Piper muttered, "shit, shitty shit shit."

The doctor stepped forward and said in a confident voice, "Where is this Lotus Incorporated?"

"It's a few miles South of here," said Rachel, "it's the largest skyscraper on 1117th Street."

The doctor sent Piper a look, asking if she was okay with this. Piper sent her a slight nod in return.

"Piper and I will go over and try to dismantle the operation," said the doctor.

"But you've only been here a few hours," Rachel said, "how could you possibly-"

"Just trust us," Piper interrupted in a confident and reassuring tone.

"Alright," Rachel replied, "good luck. You're gonna need it. Taking down Lotus Inc. is going to be like trying to battle a god with a blue plastic hair brush." Piper didn't know if that was some sort of odd future slang, but she knew what it meant: this was going to be difficult and dangerous. Well, she'd fought statues, a woman who could turn people to stone and a mob of angry mid evil villagers. She was fairly sure she was up to the challenge.

* * *

Piper tilted her head up to look at the skyscraper.

"Are you ready?" the doctor asked her, twisting the sonic screwdriver between her fingers.

"Yeah," Piper said, "let's go dismantle this dystopia."

" _O brave new world,_

_That has such people in't,"_ the doctor muttered sarcastically, opening the large glass doors with her sonic screwdriver. The building had glass walls, high ceilings and elegant chandeliers. A perky Asian woman with shoulder length hair greeted them in the entry way.

"Hello," she said, "my name is Kameko Parker and welcome to Lotus Incorporated." The doctor flashed the physic paper at the woman and her voice changed.

"Oh," she said, "you seem to be new to the building. I'll give you the grand tour." Piper sent the doctor a confused look and the doctor simply shrugged her shoulders in response. They followed the woman through various corridors and to an elevator.

"We'll be touring the basement," said Kameko, "where we produce the world famous Lotus Flowers."

"What exactly are they made of?" asked Piper.

"Love," said Kameko with a smile so hollow Piper's breath hitched in her throat, "they're made with love." Piper sent the doctor a terrified look, but the woman stepped into the elevator.

"Come on, Piper," she said, gesturing to her, "get in the lift." Piper bit her lip and against her better judgment forced herself to step through the elevator doors.

* * *

The elevator doors opened and a vast room expanded in front of Piper. Various factory machines were working to produce the Lotus Flower that their tour guide had spoken of. There were empty seeming humans hustling between different pieces of machinery on the floor, occasionally taking a bite of one of the little white flowers. The conveyer belt started at the back of the room, where ingredients were being poured into large vats and then molded into a white flower shape. On a slightly elevated platform, a man sat in an elegant looking chair that was more like a throne. He looked at them, and then a huge smile flashed across his face. He stood up and strode towards them.

"I'm impressed," he said, examining both the doctor and Piper herself, "No other rebels have made it this far. I'm not sure if that's because you're braver, smarter, or stupider than the rest."  
He paused a moment before continuing his monologue, "I really don't understand you people. I can bring you perpetual bliss, the freedom from knowledge and decision-making. Who doesn't want that?"

"No one wants that," Piper said staring at the man and his long graying beard and his jovial smile.

"You'll accept it once you have it," he said, "Everyone, I think our guests would like a Lotus Flower." The workers abandoned their posts, most grabbing Lotus Flowers from the conveyer belt.

"What do we do," Piper hissed to the doctor.

"I'm working on it," she replied, "but coming up with life-saving plans isn't as easy as it looks." Kameko sent them a slasher smile and grabbed Piper's arms. She held Piper's arms behind her back as though they were in handcuffs. Piper tried to break them away, but the woman was strong. Piper kicked backwards, and made contact with Kameko's crotch. She cried out in pain, but held Piper's hands firmly in place.

"Doctor," Piper said darting her eyes around the room, "how are we getting out of this one?" The doctor had already grabbed her sonic screwdriver out of her shirt pocket and was heading towards the beginning of the conveyer belt. A tanned woman was approaching Piper, a Lotus Flower clutched between her fingers. A large group of people were surrounding the doctor as she attempted to dismantle the conveyer belt. Piper tightly closed her mouth as the woman came within a foot of her. She kicked at her, but the contact wasn't enough to stop the woman. She started to try pry Piper's mouth open and tried to shove the flower in. Piper allowed it to enter her mouth, and then spit it back into the woman's face. She flinched back in response. Piper heard a screeching noise, and knew that the doctor had halted the conveyer belt. The room started to blur slightly, and Piper worried that she'd allowed herself to swallow enough of the Lotus Flower for it to reap its dastardly effects. She didn't feel her free will slipping away, so Piper assumed that she still had her wits about her.

She felt Kameko's neck against her head, and Piper propelled herself upwards, hitting Kameko's chin with the full force of her jump. Piper's head ached, but she didn't pass out. The woman fell onto the hard, cement ground. The other woman tried to grab Piper, but she was already running towards the doctor.

"Piper," she said, fighting off people with one hand, and crushing flowers with the other, "help me destroy these things!" Piper pushed between two men and started crushing the few remaining flowers. A few minutes of punching, kicking, and crushing later, all the flowers had been decimated. Piper heard slow clapping coming from the platform.

"Congratulations," the man said, "you almost bested me, but you still win. You'll still be awarded with eternal happiness."

"We destroyed your flowers," said Piper, "you can't control us."

The man rolled his eyes and replied in a mocking tone, "You think that I don't have more upstairs in that vast expanse of a building?"

Piper asserted, "But when you run out-"

"We'll make more," he asserted, "it's not that difficult." Piper noticed that many of the people were holding their heads. Some had looks of confusion on their faces.

"But the people will come out of their drug induced stupor," Piper said, "and they'll be pissed. They won't let it happen again." Many glared at the man. They were already awakening.

"I've seen history unfold," said the doctor, "and things never work out in the favor of those who try to control their people. Revolts, revolutions; the new age is coming. The people are awakening. They are the true oncoming storm."

"Please," he said, "it's not that difficult to keep the drugged under control."

"We're not drugged anymore," a red-haired woman said, stepping forward, "and I'm afraid we won't be taking orders from you anymore."

"But how-" he said.

"You had to ensure that we restocked our systems with lotus flowers every fifteen to twenty minutes," said the woman, "they must have kept us occupied longer than that." She smiled at them both.

"Thank you," she said and then she glared at the man, "I think it's about time we start those revolts." The woman chased after the man, followed by her fellow former lotus eaters.

* * *

The two walked through the streets of New York, as people resurfaced from their drugged haze.

"Let's not visit another dystopia," Piper said "I'm not very fond of them."

"I expected it to be more like a bit more like  _The Jetsons_ than Huxley's  _Brave New World,"_ said the doctor, "but we'll try not to end up in a political cautionary tale come to life next trip."

"Good," Piper said, "you want to know what's more fun than a corrupt futuristic government?"

"Anything," quipped the doctor.

"I was going to say surfing," said Piper, remembering the good times that she'd spent surfing with her dad, "though, I suppose you're right. Just about anything is better." The doctor opened up the tardis door.

"I bet we could go surfing," said the doctor, adjusting her ponytail.

"Really?" Piper asked, stepping into the tardis' main room, "just surfing? No robot adversaries? Or alien sharks? Or political assassination attempts?" The doctor touched the tardis' controls.

"An assassination attempt would be a lovely change of pace," said the doctor. With the grin on her face, Piper wasn't sure whether or not the woman was joking, but that didn't lessen the happiness that rushed through her at the doctor's smiling face.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's quote of the day is from William Shakespeare's play the Tempest, though its usage is more reminiscent of Huxley's famous dystopian novel, Brave New World. And on a less professional note I HOPE YOU GUYS ARE ENJOYING READING THIS STORY AS MUCH AS I AM ENJOYING WRITING THIS STORY!  
> that is all go about your regularly scheduled day.


	4. Three Hour Tour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and the doctor are stranded on a planet much like a desert island. But is it truly as uninhabited as they think?

“What’s going on?” Piper shouted. She could feel the tardis spinning under her feet. It was completely out of control. During her two trips through time, she’d never felt it spin like this before.  
“Doctor,” she asked. Before the doctor could respond, she felt the tardis crash. It felt as if a large wave was hitting her ship in the middle of the ocean, and Piper fell into the railing surrounding the controls. The doctor staggered to the door of the tardis, and Piper could see her poking her head into the sunlight.  
“Piper,” she said, “I think I might have miscalculated.” Piper walked towards the door, and looked out as well. The tardis had landed on a sandy beach, though the sand wasn’t a normal tan color. It was various shades of green, red, blue, pink, purple and gold, more akin to a rainbow than to a field of wheat. Out of the ground jutted plants that resembled palm trees, but the foliage was a deep purple and looked like the fluffy hair of a troll doll. In the sky, Piper saw a star that resembled her own planet’s sun. The clear blue water beat against the shore as the planet’s sun reflected on the water’s surface.  
“It’s so,” Piper said, pausing, “alien.” The doctor sent her a sarcastic look. Piper ignored her.  
“It’s magnificent,” she murmured.  
“I think that we’ve landed on Absurdus,” said the doctor. Then she paused a moment, drinking in the scenery.  
“Actually,” she said, pushing a lock of blonde hair out of her face, “I am nearly positive that we’ve landed on Absurdus.” Piper sent her a look, prompting for more information.  
Clearly, the doctor had just remembered that Piper was human and didn’t know everything about the universe, and then she started, “Absurdus is the universe’s great conundrum. The atmosphere, the vegetation, the water, everything here is suited for higher life forms, but none ever developed here. Many species reached here, and decided that they would not colonize it, and instead decided to leave it as final frontier so to speak, an enormous and mysterious terra incognita.”  
“So there’s literally an entire planet that’s just like an uninhabited island?” asked Piper.  
“That’s about right,” said the doctor.  
“Then what are we waiting for?” Piper asked, looking to the door, “we’ve got exploring to do. I always thought it would be exciting to be a castaway.”  
“You dreamed of getting stuck on a dessert island?” asked the doctor, raising a blonde eye brow in response.  
“I used to watch Gilligan’s Island,” said Piper, “and anyways, it seemed preferable to my boring life. Exploring sounds better than surfing anyway.”  
“Well, alright,” said the doctor, “into the fray we go. But beware, here there be dragons.”  
Piper was immediately glad that she hadn’t worn her light blue snowboarding jacket to go exploring. The planet’s climate was hot, probably somewhere ninety degrees or above, and the humidity was higher than the palm trees were tall. There was a thick layer of sweat gathered where Piper’s braids met the back of her head, but she didn’t find the experience unpleasant. She was exploring a new world and no amount of heat or sweat was going to stop her from enjoying it. She wondered if the doctor was hot in her red plaid top and black undershirt, but she didn’t ask.  
Piper looked over to the doctor’s curly blonde hair, which was partially obstructed by her Yankee’s cap. The hair stuck out in the back in a curly mass of hair. The starlight reflected against the blonde hairs and gave it an almost luminous quality, like Rapunzel’s in the move Tangled. Some of the curling strands appeared a more gold hue, while some were a pure yellow or light tan. It was startlingly beautiful, and Piper had to tear her eyes away.  
The sand shifted underneath Piper’s black converses and she wondered briefly what the strange polychromatic sand would feel like between her toes. She walked beside the doctor, and soon they were no longer on the beach. The two were in a more forested area of the island. The brown dirt was nearly coated in a rose colored grass with small green flower buds popping out of various strands of the grass. The odd purple palm trees grew on all sides of Piper and the doctor and black bushes grew close to the ground, with small, inviting looking, maroon berries sticking off of them. In the distance, Piper could see a large mountain. Smoke was radiating from the top and she wondered briefly if it was an active volcano.  
The doctor was curious as to what this Gilligan’s Island was, so Piper spent much of the trek informing her of the plot of the show. Then the doctor started rattling off about the various properties of the local vegetation, and Piper plucked a red berry from one of the black bushes. She plopped it into her mouth, and the rainbow hues of the world around her started to blur together. She felt like she was spinning, much like when the tardis was crash landing on this odd world. The colors blurred together, and Piper’s world went white. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________  
Piper tried to open her eyes as she awakened from a deep sleep. When they finally opened, she saw a beautiful woman leaning over her, with wavy auburn hair and the sunlight creating a gentle halo around her head.  
“Angel,” she muttered groggily, trying to bring herself to her senses.  
“My name is Calypso,” she said, caressing Piper’s face. Piper dug deeply within herself, trying to access her memories.  
“And I’m Piper,” she said, half to Calypso and half to herself. Calypso smiled at her, and Piper noticed that the girl had warm brown eyes. They reminded Piper of hot chocolate, rich and comforting. She almost felt like she could just melt into them and be content for the rest of forever. The woman was wearing a flowing white dress that reminded Piper of the ancient Greek fashion style, or, though she tried to silence this part of her mind, a Christian angel. There was a golden string wrapped around the woman’s waist and the white and gold both looked fabulous with the woman’s auburn hair and tanned skin tone. Piper bit her lip. She really needed to stop checking out her rescuer. Then Piper remembered the doctor. She hoped that her friend was okay and wasn’t too worried about her.  
“Don’t you know better than to eat poisonous berries,” the woman chided, but the tone of voice made it sound more like a flirtation.  
“Well, that’s me,” Piper replied in a similar tone, “always rushing into danger, never thinking things through.” Calypso leaned towards her and Piper was almost shivering with anticipation.  
“Let’s not think things through together,” she said in a tone that was less flirtatious and more seductive.  
“Let’s,” Piper said and as Calypso started to move in to kiss her, Piper heard footsteps behind them.  
“Doctor?” she asked. The doctor glared at them. Calypso turned her head and saw the doctor.  
“The doctor,” she said in tone that implied the name tasted of acid.  
“Titan,” she replied in a similar tone.  
“So the coward who survived the time war finally showed up on my door step,” Calypso said. Piper was far beyond confused.  
“Looks like the genocide of my people wasn’t good enough for you,” she said coldly, but then her expression softened a bit, “but I suppose that it went both ways.”  
“They’re both dead and gone,” the doctor said with a pained look. From their conversation, Piper had gathered that the Timelords had fought a war against the Titans and that Calypso and the doctor were the only survivors. It was actually quite depressing. Piper didn’t know what had driven their peoples (or was it species) to war, but Piper hoped that they could let old prejudices die. She couldn’t bear to lose the doctor, but Calypso seemed amazing as well. The doctor and Calypso exchanged a look that seemed to convey a truce. The two seemed to come to an agreement of sorts after eons of fighting.  
“Whatever happened to you, Piper,” the doctor asked with a concerned look.  
“She ate some poison berries,” said Calypso, “I took her in and helped to heal her.”  
“Oh yes,” the doctor said, the stain in her voice thinly veiled under a layer of sarcasm, “is that we call it these days? To me, it looked like you two had been chatting it up. Actually, it looked like you were about to snog.” Piper was sure that her tanned cheeks turned a bright shade of pink, and then she thought about the doctor’s tone for a moment. If she didn’t know any better, she’d have thought her jealous.  
“Well, why not?” Calypso said with a shrug, “Piper is very beautiful and kind.” Piper smiled in response to Calypso’s praise. She felt the earth shake.  
“What was that?” asked Piper, darting her eyes between Calypso and the doctor.  
“The volcano on this island,” she said, “when you got yourself poisoned and I was off looking for you, I found the volcano. It’s going to erupt any minute.” Her voice might not have betrayed her hint of panic, but Piper could see a glimmer in her steel gray eyes.  
“What are we waiting for?” she asked the doctor, “We have to get out of here!” The doctor glanced towards Calypso and Piper knew that she was considering what to do with her. Piper made her decision for her.  
“Calypso,” she said, a hint of urgency in her voice, “you need to come with us.” The doctor sent Piper a slight glare, but didn’t revoke Piper’s offer.  
“I’m sorry, Piper,” she said sadly, “but the era of the Titans has gone. I bear the punishment for fighting in the Time War, for attempting to set our race up as gods. I do not deserve your kindness.” That was new information, Piper thought, but she didn’t even think about retracting her offer. Clearly Calypso had repented from whatever sins she had committed in the past. She didn’t deserve to die this way.  
“I don’t care,” said Piper, “Calypso, you can come with us. Save yourself.” She gently bit her lip and then added pleadingly, “please?”  
“I’m sorry, Piper,” she said, pressing a soft kiss to Piper’s lips, “but I cannot. This is the end of my eternity.” The auburn haired alien turned her attention away from Piper and to the doctor.  
Then she said in a remorseful tone, “Doctor, I am sorry for what happened to your race, but I must warn you. I am not the last of the Titans, and I doubt the others will have repented the way that I have.”  
The doctor sent her a concerned look and then said something that surprised Piper, “You don’t have to carry the weight of your entire race’s sins on your shoulders. You can come with us.”  
“Doctor,” she said with a small, wistful smile, “this isn’t entirely for the sins of my race. My kinsmen are all dead, and I am sad and tired. This is my one chance to die, to end it all. Surely you of all people would understand wanting that.” The doctor sent her an understanding look. For the first time since Piper had met her, the doctor looked as though the weight of forever and the infinite losses truly were on her shoulders. Her eyes looked stormy, with rage and bliss and loss and sadness all dancing around in her gray irises.  
“Be careful, Oncoming Storm,” she said, “And protect Piper. That girl is worth the world.” Piper could feel her throat start to constrict as Calypso walked away. Her eyes burned and she felt tears roll down her cheeks. Piper tried to reach out, to grab her. She wanted to drag Calypso back into the tardis and never let her go, but the doctor grabbed Piper by the arm. She wore a pained expression and a pleading look. Don’t, it said, and Piper held herself back. She watched as Calypso walked to her personal doom, the end of her eternity.  
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When they arrived back at the tardis, Piper attempted to lighten the dark and dreary mood.  
“You were jealous,” Piper teased.  
“Jealous,” she scoffed, “jealous of what?”  
“Jealous of Calypso and I ‘chatting it up’,” Piper said with a smirk.  
“I wasn’t jealous,” the woman grumbled with a blush, “I was just worried for your safety. It was a right dangerous place with poisonous berries and Titans and erupting volcanoes.”  
“Jealous,” Piper sing-songed and then the doctor glared in response.  
“I was not,” the doctor replied in exasperation.  
“You lie,” Piper declared.  
“I do,” replied the doctor, raising her eyebrow.  
“Well it’s more like, you lied,” Piper said, thinking.  
“About what?” asked the doctor, a slightly confused look on her face.  
“There were no dragons,” she said a smile gracing her face. The doctor laughed. She had a surprisingly deep, hearty laugh. Piper had only heard her chuckle before and hearing her laugh made Piper’s heart sing. The doctor’s face lit up like the sky on the fourth of July and Piper wondered if maybe her feelings stretched farther than friendship. It reminded her of how she’d felt when she’d looked into Calypso’s eyes and then she was assaulted with unpleasant feelings. She pushed them away, but found a different unpleasant memories flooding in and filling their spot. Memories of an absentee mother.  
“Piper, what’s wrong,” the doctor asked. Clearly, her pained memories had shown on her face.  
“I just remembered something,” she said sadly, “Calypso,” the next few words caught in her throat, “her leaving, it reminded me of my mother.”  
“What happened to her?” the doctor asked her cautiously.  
“Nothing,” Piper said, her voice deflated, “she just left. She left right after I was born. I never knew her.” Piper thought a moment of her childhood spent wondering why her mother never wanted her, the days she mourned a woman that she’d never known. Then she considered the doctor and her blue box of time and space. She could take them anywhere, anywhere at all. Even to Piper’s birth, even to.  
“Doctor,” she said, “I know where I want to go next.”  
“Where?” the doctor asked with a grin, “to the building of the Great Pyramids? The fall of Rome? The dawn of the Fourth Great Human Empire? A Beatles concert?”  
The doctor looked so excited to show her all that the cosmos had to offer, and she felt guilty asking something so selfish and  and insignificant, but she did it anyway.

"I want to meet my mother," Piper says. 


	5. Are You My Mummy?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and Annabeth travel to the day of Piper's birth to meet her mother. With the possibility of someone's death and universe ending paradoxes hanging in the air, can Piper keep it together?

“I want to meet my mother,” Piper said. The Doctor was taken off guard. Obviously, this wasn’t what she had been expecting. She took a deep breath, and seemed to be considering Piper’s request. _Or was it more a demand,_ Piper wondered.

“Alright,” conceded the Doctor, “but remember: you can’t interfere.”

“I promise,” she said, “I just want to talk. I swear.” Piper had never met her mother, she really just wanted to know what she was like. Hear her voice, see her face, just to ease the terrible curiosity that had emerged inside of her.

“When and where do you know that I can find her?” the Doctor asked, placing her hands on the tardis’ controls.   
“April 8, 1995,” Piper said confidently, “Saint Illness Hospital in San Francisco.”

The doctor sent her a funny look and asked, “How are you sure that she’ll be there?”

“Well,” Piper replied jokingly, “it was when and where I was born, so unless I have this whole _birds and the bees_ thing all wrong, I’m fairly sure that she was there.”

The Doctor’s face turned a bright red and she replied, “Alright, this is a bad idea, but here we go to,” she paused a moment, groping for the name, “what was the name of the hospital again?”

“Saint Illness,” Piper replied.

“Saint Illness?” asked the Doctor.

“I didn’t name it,” she said, shrugging in response, “but your name is _the Doctor_ so I don’t think you have any room to talk in the naming department.”

“ _Touché,”_ the Doctor replied.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Piper stepped out of the tardis and saw the hospital that she was born in. It was tall. The bottom half was rectangular, with red-brown bricks and an occasional window. The upper half was a dome shape completely covered in glass windows sitting directly on top of the lower, rectangular half. At the very bottom sat the set of two glass doors, both self-propelled that opened by sliding in an _Open Sesame_ motion, like Moses’ parting of the Red Sea. Piper looked to the Doctor who stood beside her in the shadow of the hospital.

“No matter what happens,” the Doctor said, “remember not to touch yourself.”

“Are you telling me not to masturbate?” asked Piper confused. She gave the doctor an odd look.

“N-n-no,” the Doctor said, tripping all over her words, “I meant don’t touch your baby self. Don’t touch baby Piper!”

“Oh,” Piper said in embarrassment.

“Universe destroying paradoxes,” said the Doctor, “it’s bad news. Just don’t risk it.” Piper walked through the doors and sat down in the lobby, in one of the many little, blue, plastic chairs.

“So how are we going to go about this?” the Doctor asked, “obviously we can’t just go up to the receptionist and ask to see the baby-version of you.”

“We can always impersonate doctors,” suggested Piper, “although, you wouldn’t really be impersonating.”

“Sounds as good of an idea as any,” the Doctor replied, getting off of the hard chair.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And that is how the two ended up with white doctor’s coats over their clothing. Piper hoped that her ski jacket didn’t budge too much under the coat, but she couldn’t bear not having it on. She could possibly lose it, and that thought worried her. They took the elevator up to the sixth floor. She and the Doctor wandered the hall a few minutes before slipping into a small waiting room to discuss their strategy. The room was tiny. It had fading beige walls with dusty Catholic paintings. Lining the walls were the small, worn chairs with discolored floral print. Jigsaw puzzles littered the floor. A small, battered coffee table sat in between two of the chairs and a boy girl was kneeling in front of it, putting together one of the various jigsaw puzzles. The boy heard the footsteps and turned around to face them. He frowned and said, “You aren’t my sister.”

“No,” said Piper, sitting down in a chair near her, “I’m sorry.” The boy pushed a lock of shaggy black hair out of his face.

“She said that she’d be back soon,” said the boy, “she said that mom was too bad to see right now. What does that mean?” Piper could feel the burning in her throat again. This boy’s mother was probably dying right now, but there was nothing that they could do about it.

“I’m sorry,” she lied, “I’m not sure what she means.”

“I wish Bianca would just tell me what’s going on,” he said, a pout on his small face, “I’m not a baby.” Piper guessed that he was somewhere between seven and nine.

She glanced at the Doctor and the Doctor gave her a look, _I feel bad, but there’s nothing we can do._

Piper looked back to the boy, with his shaggy black hair and his youthful face and his bright black eyes that seemed to hold an abyss of innocence and joy. She was afraid that what was in store for his future would leave them cracked like shattered glass. She looked him over one more time and reminded of his youth. He was wearing a black shirt with a Pikachu on it. She hugged him and then he made a _bleh_ sound.

“Girls,” he said, wiping himself clean of her girl germs.

“What’s your name,” she asked, standing back up.

“Nico,” he said looking her over.

“Nico,” she said earnestly, “I wish you the best.” She and the Doctor stepped out of the waiting room and walked away from Nico. The two walked in silence or a few moments, moving aside for patients and doctors.

“Is that what it’s like,” Piper asked, “Knowing the outcome of something and being unable to save everyone?”

“A little,” the Doctor admitted, “but Piper, I need you to realize that it might be even harder to just walk away from your mother. That’s personal. Remember _, O let not Time deceive you, You cannot conquer Time.”_ Piper tried to push away the ache as they walked through more of the hospital’s corridors.

Eventually, they arrived in the maternity ward. Piper and the doctor started taking various clipboards off the walls near the entrances to the rooms. They read various different combinations of names, but none included a Tristan McLean.

“Piper,” asked the doctor after a few minutes of clipboard-hopping, “Is your father’s name Tristan.”

“Yes,” she said.

“It reads Aphrodite Petit and Tristan McLean,” she said holding the clipboard and then she paused a moment, “do you want me to come inside with you?”

Piper thought about it a moment, but then decided that this was probably something she should do alone and replied, “I’m sorry, Doctor, but I don’t think that you should.” The Doctor respected Piper’s decision and opened the door for her. Piper took a deep breath and then took a step inside. On the white hospital bed sat a pale woman with wavy, caramel colored hair and lightly freckled cheeks. She held a small, tan baby gently in her arms. Piper crept softly in and the woman, Piper’s mother asked, “Who is it?”

“The doctor,” she said lamely.

“Well come on in then,” Aphrodite replied, her voice slightly lower than Piper’s own high pitched soprano. Her mother’s seemed more a mezzo-soprano and tended towards slightly lower pitches. And if Piper wasn’t mistaken, her mother had a bit of an accent. It wasn’t British like the doctor’s, maybe it was French?

“Hello,” Piper said, walking awkwardly towards the stiff hospital bed.

“You look nothing like the doctor I had earlier,” said her mother, “but I guess there’s more than one doctor in a hospital this big.” Piper was glad that her mother had reasoned away her own worries and that she wouldn’t have to do it herself. Though she was persuasive, actually using her powers of persuasion wasn’t her favorite thing.

“What are you doing, today?” her mother asked in a conversational style.

“Just giving brief checkups,” she lied. She was close enough to see her mother’s eyes, a mixture of brown, green and blue, just like Piper’s own. Her father was curled up in a large ball in the corner of the room.

“What’s with him?” Piper asked. She didn’t know why he wasn’t in the bed with her, there was certainly room.

“He’s doing that in protest because I’m moving back to France with my baby in a few months,” the woman said. And then it hit Piper, suddenly her life made a bit more sense. Her mother had been determined to return to France and her father wanted raise her. She decided that she wouldn’t push the situation any further. Her whole life was in danger of changing drastically. Her every step could change everything.

“Why did I tell you that?” her mother mused, “I don’t even know. I just feel comfortable with you for no reason at all.” And then Piper walked over and gave her a hug, careful not to touch her baby self.

“You’re not really a doctor,” her mother replied with a smirk.

“Not exactly,” she said, walking out of the room.

The doctor smiled at her and said, “looks like you didn’t destroy the time space continuum after all.”

“I know,” Piper joked, “it’s shocking, isn’t it?”

“Just a little,” the Doctor said as they got into the elevator. She hoped that Nico would be alright, but she figured that his timeline was as fragile as her own.

She could hear an old _Kansas_ song playing gently in the background,

_“I close my eyes, only for a moment, and the moment's gone_

_All my dreams, pass before my eyes, a curiosity.”_ Briefly, Piper wondered what it would have been like had she grown up with her mother, but she allowed the fantasy to die. She thought back to the time that she spent with her father and she wouldn’t trade it for the world. She wouldn’t trade his proud smiles and surfing trips and stupid little sticky note communication system for whatever she might have had with her mother.

“Where do you want to go next??” the Doctor asked, leaning against the tardis door.

“I don’t actually know,” Piper said, “where do you want to go?”

“Somewhere with amazing architecture,” she said, “Maybe ancient Rome, futuristic Tokyo, Utalia, or-“ The Doctor cut herself off and the continued, “China!” Piper smiled, China seemed like an interesting change of pace.

“Hold on tight,” the Doctor said adjusting the controls, “this might be a bumpy ride.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's selected quotes come from As I Walked Out One Evening by W. H. Auden and Dust in the Wind by Kansas. And the name Saint Illness is shamelessly lifted from Drake and Josh.


	6. This Chapter Knows What You Did in the Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After landing in ancient China, the Doctor and Piper encounter a creature that is stealing the life force from the local villagers.

"Here we are," said the Doctor in a chipper tone, "ancient China." Piper cautiously opened the TARDIS door and was met with a chilly gust of air. The hilly landscape was partially covered in snow. Off in the distance, she could see the Great Wall looping around the hillside. She would have liked to have stared at the scenery for hours on end, but the freezing cold air was starting to get to her and she closed the TARDIS door.

"And it's winter," said Piper in response, a small shiver going down her spine. She walked to a different section of the TARDIS that housed clothing and pulled out an indigo coat and a tie dyed fleece scarf.

The Doctor scrutinized her for a moment and then sighed.

"I suppose it didn't get us killed when you wore casual early twenty first century clothing to Islamic Spain, so I won't bug you to change," she said. Piper felt her phone in her pants' pocket and briefly wondered how her father was doing. She would call him later, she decided.

"Are you coming?" the Doctor asked playfully as she held the door open.

Piper stepped out into the ancient sunlight and biting air and said, "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

* * *

Piper and the Doctor hiked side-by-side through the Chinese countryside. The yellowed grass peaked gently through a melting layer of snow. Piper decided that she really should have changed shoes as well, because her black converses were soaked, her socks were wet and her toes were frozen. The sunlight reflected on the melting snow, giving it a faint glow, instead of the twinkling diamond appearance of newly fallen snow. In the distance, Piper could still see the Great Wall snaking through the countryside.

"So what do you want to do first?" Piper asked gently moving a lock of brown hair that had fallen out of her braid.

"I thought that we'd just wander the countryside until adventure finds us," she said with a light shrug, "it normally does." Piper had to agree that  _yes,_ adventure always did seem to find them. Then, she heard a woman's anguished cry.

"Looks like it found us," the Doctor said, grabbing Piper's hand.

* * *

The two ran across the countryside for about ten minutes before they found anything. A buff teenaged boy with a baby face was cradling a lifeless body in his arms. It was a woman, but her hair was as white as the covered ground, and her skin had shrived up like a raisin. The scene reminded her of Michelangelo's Pietà and she tore her eyes away. On the horizon, she saw a gigantic red bird flying soaring off. It reminded her of Ho-oh, a majestic legendary bird traveling the sky. She would have smiled had it not have been for the carnage in front of her, carnage that in all reality was probably caused by the bird. She felt the Doctor squeeze her hand.

The boy looked up from the body cradled in his arms and glared. Piper could feel his dark brown eyes boring into her.

"What do you want?" he snarled. Under normal circumstances, Piper would have flinched, but all normalcy had been thrown out the window when she met the doctor.

Then she said, "We want to help."

"How can you help," he said, "she's already dead. So many people have already died."

"We can help prevent it from happening again," the Doctor explained, "please, tell us what's happened."

"Who are you anyway?" he asked, his voice trembling.

"I'm the doctor and this is my," she paused a moment, groping for the right word, " _companion,_ Piper." Piper wasn't sure how she felt about the word  _companion,_ but she let it slide. Friend wouldn't encompass everything that they were. Piper briefly toyed with the word escort, but considering the stigma surrounding it, Piper found herself glad to be called the doctor's companion instead.

The boy sent them a skeptical look through his teary eyes, but then started to speak, "My name is Frank." Piper thought it a little odd that the boy from ancient China's name was Frank, but she kept it to herself.

_Normalcy is a delusion,_ she thought to herself.

"For the past couple of months," he began with a look of fear in his stormy eyes, "people all across the countryside have been disappearing. Usually, the bodies weren't recovered, but when they were, they looked ancient, as if all the life had been sucked out of them. My mom-"Then his voice got caught in his throat, "my mom and I went out today and I was a bit ahead of her, like I normally am. She was attacked by this gigantic bird with reddish feathers and a golden beak, and I heard her screech. I turned around, and then thing had its beak pressed up against her chest. It looked like she was aging decades in the moment that I watched. When the beast flew away, my mother was-" He couldn't force the word out. Piper understood. Admitting something happened, saying it out loud made it feel more real like a god speaking a universe into existence. She could understand putting off the inevitable.

Piper looked to the body of Frank's mother, and it no longer looked like a dried up fruit. The skin had disappeared, and the skeleton was fading into dust, or was it ash?

" _Ashes to ashes,"_ the Doctor muttered. Frank tried to grasp at the remains of his mother, but her ashes were like smoke, dissipating into the air the moment he tried to touch them. Piper wished that she could do more to ease his pain because with his baby face and pained expression he looked like a baby seal that someone had just kicked.

"If you still think that you can help," Frank said, his voice trembling slightly less than earlier, "you can come with me." The Doctor looked Piper straight in the eyes and they followed the boy down the path.

* * *

Piper followed the boy through the snow covered path, wishing desperately that she had more foresight with her footwear. She looked over to the Doctor who seemed lost in thought, obviously trying to work out what sort of alien life-form was terrorizing the Chinese countryside. She could feel the breeze nipping at her nose and wondered briefly if Jack Frost was real as well. At this point it honestly wouldn't surprise her.

" _So light 'em up, up, up_

_Light 'em up, up, up_ ," sang Piper's ringtone. Frank sent her a funny look.

" _Light 'em up, up, up_

_I'm on fire,"_ it continued before Piper picked it up.

"Hey, it's Piper," she said.

"Piper," replied her father's voice, "I am so glad to hear your voice."

"Are you alright, dad?" she asked.

"Piper," he said, "you've been gone for three months. I was getting really worried. I tried to call you before. I've been trying for two months." Piper remembered the times that she'd put the thing on silent in the TARDIS and felt a little bit bad.

"I'm sorry, dad," she said.  
"When are you planning on coming back?" he asked, a hint of urgency in his tone.

"I'm not sure yet," she said.

"I'm worried about you," he said honestly.

"Don't be," she said, "I'm in good company."

"Who," he demanded.

"A  _companion,"_ she said, grinning at the inside joke.

"Piper, stop being so vague," he said in irritation.

"I love you, dad," Piper said and then she hung up the phone. The Doctor had a look of pure joy on her face. Clearly, she had figured out the answer to the problem, that was the only thing that would spark such an ecstatic look from the woman. The doctor had just had her eureka moment.

"I've got it, Piper," the doctor said, grinning, "I've got it."

"What is  _it_?" asked Frank, turning around to face the doctor.

"I know how to defeat the bird," she said, her eyes silver eyes glowing with joy and pride.

"How?" he demanded. He seemed determined to defeat the monster that stole his mother's life.

Then, the Doctor said with a devilish smirk, "We're going to have to climb the wall."

* * *

" _That_  isn't the wall," Piper said, looking at the tree the Doctor was planning on climbing, " _that_ is a tree." The tree was positioned right beside the wall, with its winding branches leading all the way to the edge of the wall.

"That is the tree we're going to climb in order to get onto the wall," the Doctor said. Frank looked to the two women, to the tree, and then back to the two women.

"You two are insane," he said rolling his eyes.

"We're all mad here," Piper quoted.

The doctor sent her a look of slight confusion then said, "Lewis Carol, I'm fairly impressed."

"What?" Piper asked, slightly insulted, "I  _do_ read." Frank just gave them a look that said that he was very done with both of their shit.

"Do you have a better idea?" the doctor asked.

"Yes," he said.

Frank pointed to the structure on top of the wall thirty feet behind them, "there are stairs, you know." Piper laughed as the doctor tried to hide her obvious embarrassment.

"Lead the way, then," she replied.

* * *

Piper was relieved when her feet touched the first stone step. She was no longer trekking though the small amount of melting snow and her feet would finally begin to defrost. There fewer steps than one might expect, it seemed only slightly longer than a normal staircase, but it was very dark. Piper put her hand on the right wall to orient herself and was quickly up the stairs. No tripping, no falling, with only a slight stumble at the top. Considering the darkness and lack of handrail, Piper was satisfied. She opened the door at the top and the evening sunlight beamed at her when she stepped out onto the wall. She was quickly flanked by the Doctor and Frank. She saw a small wooden ladder leading to the top of the outpost.

"Climb away, my lady," the Doctor said, gesturing to the ladder. Piper was unsure how to respond to the term, so she just climbed to the top. She was followed by the Doctor and then Frank. The Doctor took her sonic screwdriver out of her pocket and sent a bolt of energy into the sky.

"What's that going to do?" asked Frank.

The Doctor bit her lip and then replied, "Bring it right to us." Piper heard the screeching of a bird in the distance and she braced herself. A moment later, she saw the bird flying straight towards her. It was very much how Frank had described it with its golden beak and talons. It had warm brown eyes that seemed to reflect a nonexistent fire and Piper's breath hitched. This thing could steal her life force and leave her a dried husk of a human being and ultimately ashes carried by the breeze. She held her ground. She heard the Doctor rustling about, moving to a different position. The beast landed on the front of their perch and Piper looked it dead in the eyes. It shoved her out of the way with its talons, leaving her  _Panic! At the Disco_ t-shirt in tatters and shallow cuts across her stomach. She looked back to the bird's profile. It seemed to move with an elderly hobble, but its feathers shifted from a deep brown to a crimson to orange to burnt yellow, like an actual flame. It was beautiful, in a terrifying sort of way. Frank tried to charge at it, but was swatted away like a bug.

The Doctor stood her ground in what looked like a fire pit and Piper tried to rush forward, to protect the Doctor from her own stupidity. The bird lunged forward, into the fire pit and the doctor shot a bolt of energy deep inside. She jumped out of the pit, knocking Piper to the ground. Piper hugged the woman tightly in a moment of extreme relief, and then helped them both to their feet. The logs and tender went up in flames, and so did the bird. Piper heard the bird's cries of anguish, its dying screams, and she almost found herself pitying it.

The flames died down, but the ashes stirred.

Then, in confusion Piper asked, "What?" The Doctor smiled at the fire pit and stepped into the fire pit. Piper needed to get that woman on a leash to prevent her from doing something stupid and suicidal. She put her hands into the ashes,  _the goddamn ashes that had just finished burning,_ and pulled out a tiny, scarlet bird with a golden beak.

Piper asked, "Is that-"

"Yeah," the doctor replied, "it's the same bird."

"How does that even work?" Piper asked.

"It's a phoenix," the doctor said, "they are reborn through fire. When they need to regenerate and there are no flames around, they go insane and start stealing the life force from surrounding creatures."

"How did you know?" asked Piper, "about the regeneration, I mean."

"Timelords do it too," she said, shrugging.

"Timelords step into flames and are reborn as babies," said Piper, her disgust with the concept evident in her tone, "and if there are no flames available they steal other people's life force."

"No," said the Doctor, a look of pure horror on her face, "when we regenerate, we don't need flames. We're about to die a normal death, but our bodies don't allow it. We're sort of reborn with a different face and a slightly different personality, It's how we can live so long." Piper was mortified with the concept, she couldn't stand the idea of her Doctor not being her Doctor anymore.

Instead of voicing her concern with this part of the topic she asked, "How old are you, exactly?"

"Around a thousand, give or take twenty," said the Doctor in a chipper tone.

"That is one hell of an age gap," Piper replied. Frank was finally able to get up, and he walked over to them.

"Is it," asked Frank, "is it gone?"

"Yes," the Doctor replied, "it won't bother your people anymore."

"Thank you," he said with a look of genuine gratitude on his face, "I guess this is goodbye."

"Goodbye, Frank," Piper said, "I wish you the best of luck."

"You're going to be amazing someday," the Doctor said, "Oh, wait! You already are." Frank gave her another strange look and then exited the wall.

"Come on, Piper," said the doctor grabbing lightly by the wrist, "there are still a ton of places I want to take you." Piper smiled slightly at that, but the ominous feeling remained with her. What if the Doctor regenerated and she wasn't herself anymore. Piper didn't want to lose her. The idea terrified her more than any gorgon, angry mob, dystopia or titan. She _couldn't_ lose her. Piper laced her tanned fingers along with the Doctor's pale, slender ones as they returned to the TARDIS. The Doctor babbled about the amazing architecture of the Great Wall the entire way, and Piper lost herself in the passion of her words, completely forgetting her deeply seeded worries for a little while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The song lyrics and title are taken from Fall Out Boy's My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'em Up) and the quote is from Lewis Carol's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.


	7. Through the Looking Glass

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and the Doctor are transported to an alternate universe, where they find out that a friend of the Doctor's is still alive.

Piper awoke to the TARDIS shifting in turbulence.

"Damn it," she muttered, grasping the edges of the bed tightly, "not again!" She shifted slightly to turn on her lamp, and was startled when the room illuminated. The furniture was sliding across the floor, as if the entire TARDIS had been picked up by some sort of rogue tornado. She held tightly to the bed, and begged the world to stop spinning. She'd signed up for trips through space and time, not a never-ending carnival ride. The TARDIS kept spinning, and it seemed to be getting faster and faster. Piper felt nauseous. Then, the TARDIS hit the ground hard. The furniture jumped and Piper jumped with it. She landed back on her bed, and took a tentative step off of her perch and almost let out a scream of joy. The spinning had stopped and they had landed.

"Piper," she heard the Doctor say, "are you alright?"

"Fine," she called, "just a little dizzy."

"Would you like to see where we ended up?' the Doctor asked, poking her baseball cap clad head into Piper's room.

"Yes," she replied, and then paused a moment before adding, "I'm guessing you don't know."

"That is correct," the Doctor said, "come on, Pipes."

"Pipes?" Piper asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Thought that I'd try it," the Doctor replied with a small shrug, "is it awful?"

"No," said Piper, "but my dad calls me that."

The Doctor got an embarrassed look on her face that was way cuter than it had any right to be, and Piper added, "But it's fine, Doctor. You can call me that if you want."

The Doctor looked slightly confused, and then a triumphant smirk flashed across her face.

_My god,_ Piper thought,  _I've created a monster._

* * *

Piper stepped out of the TARDIS and was greeted by the sights and sounds of modern Los Angeles.

"Well," said the Doctor, "that's strange. I could have sworn we ended up in some terribly faraway place, not early twenty-first century L.A." Piper surveyed the area, because she agreed. This was just too convenient to be true. Then, Piper noticed something that startled her.

"Doctor," Piper said, her voice wavering, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."

The doctor turned to her, "What do you mean?" And then Piper pointed to a large billboard. It read  _The King of Sparta_ and it had a large picture of Tristan McLean dressed in ancient Greek battle armor.

"Where are we, Doctor," Piper asked, biting her lip.

"I think that we've been transported to a parallel dimension," she said.  
"Is that a bad thing?" asked Piper.

"Well," the Doctor replied, "I'm not entirely sure yet. The multi-verses are a strange place. Every time a decision is made, a universe splits off. This could be just like your world, save your father's acting career, but earth could also be ruled by aliens from some distant planet. The amount of changes is hard to predict, and what caused this universe to split off from the rest might not be what we expect."

"Every time a decision is made?" asked Piper, "so do you mean that every time that I decide to go to the mall, an alternate universe splits off from ours?"

"Well," the Doctor said, "it doesn't work exactly like that. It's only big decisions that have an important effect. There might be an alternate universe where you didn't decide to go to the mall the day that we met, or one where you didn't decide to travel with me in the TARDIS." Both of those possibilities sounded awful to Piper. She was glad she lived in her own universe.

The Doctor just kept listing off possibilities, "Or if the Axis Powers had won World War II, or if various alien species decided to invade earth while humanity was a fetus of a species."

"Alright, alright," Piper said, "I get it. You can stop now."

"Or if Christianity had never taken hold of the Roman Empire," she said, smirking, "or if-" Piper sent the Doctor a glare that would cause gods to quake in their boots. She stopped listing the various turning points that could have resulted in a universal split.

The Doctor straightened herself out and asked, "Would you like to look around a bit? See what caused this split?" Piper's glare died and she smiled.

"I'd love to," she said in response.

* * *

They walked the streets of L.A, bumping elbows with many people. The sun beat down on them, and Piper was glad that she had once again shed her skiing jacket. Now, she was clad in a black  _Fall Out Boy_ t-shirt and a pair of capris. The doctor was still dressed in her customary jeans, plaid shirt, black undershirt and navy Yankee's cap. Piper wondered briefly if the woman had ever changed clothes. A young girl, with a mass of girly brown hair bumped her head straight into Piper's chin.

"Are you alright?" Piper asked.

The girl took a strange earpiece out of her ear and replied, "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying any attention."

"What's that?" Piper asked, surveying the silver earpiece.

"Where have you been?" the girl asked, confused by Piper's ignorance, "it's only the newest in earphone tech from  _Castellan Co."_ The Doctor's eyes widened, as if the name brought back memories she hadn't revisited in years.

"Did you say Castellan?" the Doctor asked.

"Yes," the girl said, though she obviously meant more along the lines of  _so what_?

"As in Luke Castellan?" she asked, her gray eyes serious.

"Yes," the girl replied, "he  _is_  the founder and CEO."

"Thank you," the Doctor said, "but my friend and I have to go."

"It's fine," she said, though Piper assumed she meant something more like  _you two are very strange._

"But, Doctor," Piper said, but the Doctor had grabbed her hand and was taking her to a nearby park bench.

"What the fuck was that," Piper demanded as the Doctor sat down on the park bench. She cradled her head in her hands.

"Doctor," Piper asked, her tone shifting from annoyance to concern, "are you alright?"

"Castellan," she muttered, lifting her head, "can it really be?" Piper put a hand on her shoulder.

"Who's Castellan?" she asked. The Doctor remained silent.

Piper turned to her, looked her straight in the eyes and said softly, "I can't help you if you won't let me."

"Luke Castellan," she said, "that was an alias that another timelord used to use, a timelord that went by the name  _The Hero."_ Piper knew exactly what the Doctor was thinking, perhaps she wasn't so alone?

"Do you want to check?" asked Piper, "we could go to a library, do some research?"

The Doctor looked at her and smiled, "Yeah, let's try."

* * *

They sat in the small, worn chairs in the public library in front of the prehistoric computer. It was perfectly silent and it smelled of old books. The Doctor typed  _Castellan Corporation_ into the google search bar and the first result was the company website. The website's homepage showed a picture of the girl's earpiece, and then she clicked on the page that read _Company Information._ It said, "Castellan Corporation is a company dedicated to enhancing users' technological experiences. We are based in Los Angeles, California at 1216 Hermes Street." The woman beside them clutched her earpiece in pain.

"I wonder what's wrong," Piper said aloud. The Doctor looked to the woman and then back to the screen. She grimaced as if she'd just experienced an unpleasant epiphany.

"Are we going?" Piper asked in a louder voice. The librarian glared at them. Piper shrunk down in slight embarrassment.

"Of course," the Doctor whispered, "do you even have to ask?"

* * *

After hailing a cab, the Doctor and Piper arrived at the Castellan Corporation's large skyscraper headquarters. It vaguely resembled that of Lotus Incorporated, but that was probably because Piper wasn't very knowledgeable about architecture. They opened the door, and were greeted to a large, open, front room. At the end of the room sat a man at a large, oak, desk and slightly behind him were various elevator doors.

"Can I help you," asked his low voice.

"Yes," the Doctor said, her voice chiming the way it always did when she had a plan, "my name is Annabeth Chase, and this is my associate, Piper. We have an appointment with mister Castellan to discuss marketing." The man looked skeptical, probably due to their casual clothing, but simply asked, "May I see some identification, please?"

The Doctor flashed him her physic paper and he replied, "Take the elevator to the top floor. His office is the only one up there." Piper hit the up button on the outside of the elevator, and a moment later, the doors opened. Piper stepped through and clicked the top button. She could hear Desperado by  _The Eagles_ playing faintly in the background.

"Annabeth?' asked Piper, "Where did that come from?"

"It's an old alias," she said, "but it's a bit odd, so people don't question it." That did make sense. It seemed that if something was too generic then it would attract more attention than something that was an abnormality. Piper heard the door chime and then the doors parted like the Red Sea. A blond man with a long, white scar across his eye sat at a large, ash desk.

"Who is it," he asked, but then he lifted his head from his papers. A look of recognition and disbelief crossed his face.

"Doctor?" he asked.

The Doctor was smiling, "Hero."

"How did you survive the Time War," he said, "I saw you die." There went Piper's theory that all timelords had British accents. The Hero spoke with a middle American speech pattern, something you might expect to hear in Kansas or Colorado.

"I'm from a parallel universe," said the Doctor, "one where you died."

His smile faded a bit.

"I see that you have a good business going," said the Doctor, "real posh."

"Yeah," he said gesturing to the room, "I've done pretty well for myself." Above his desk was a large television screen with a map of the world. The map was almost completely coated in red dots.

"And you haven't even seen the best part yet," he said, as he flipped a switch on his desk. Immediately, some of the red dots turned green.

"What's happening," Piper asked.

"Doctor," he said, "I thought that I was the only one left, I started going through with plans to repopulate us."

"Does he mean-" Piper asked.

The Doctor cut her off, "That's mad, Hero. You can't really mean you're turning humans into timelords through those silly little earpieces of yours."

"But I am," he said, a look of madness and triumph in his cold blue eyes, "Change the frequency flying into those earpieces, and BAM! It rewrites their entire genetic code."  
"That's barbaric," Piper said, "won't that hurt?"

"Yes," the Doctor said, "Hero, tell me that you're joking now. Tell me that."

"Can't you see, Doctor," the Hero said, "this is the only way to save us. We won't be alone. It's insane, almost everyone from the United States to China has one. There will be more of us then there's ever been before."

And for a moment, the Doctor looked tempted, but then Piper interrupted, "but what happens to us. What happens to the people?"

"You won't exist anymore," he said, with a solemn look, "I'm sorry, but it's the way it has to be."

"You're suggesting the genocide of my entire race as if you've been forced to put down a dog," she said in a biting tone, "tell him he's crazy, Doctor. Tell him that you're going to stop him." The Doctor didn't respond. She seemed in a state of shock. Piper wasn't sure if it was because of the Hero's words or because it was he who was saying them. They seemed as though they had been friends.

"God damn it, Doctor!" she said, her voice cracking.

She turned her attention back to the  _Hero,_ though she felt that the Hitler might be a more fitting name and yelled, "Humans may not be timelords but I don't fucking care. We aren't worth less than you."

"One species is hardly too high a price to pay for the rebirth of my race," he said, "the extinction of yours will be an unpleasant byproduct, but entirely worth it."

The Doctor snapped out of her trance and then said, "Stop this, Hero. It's madness. It's genocide. Gen-o-cide, Hero, or damn close to it. There is no redemption once you've reached that point. You know that."

"Doctor," he said, "you're like my sister, but you need to understand that this is what's best for everyone. It's best for the timelords and the universe."

"Don't play god," she said, her eyes intense, like the swirling winds of a hurricane.  _The oncoming storm,_ Piper remembered and in that moment she didn't doubt it.

"Don't you dare play god now," the Doctor said, "that is titan talk. To toy with the lives of mortals like a child with a dollhouse, this isn't you, Hero. You aren't my childhood friend. This isn't you!"

He looked taken aback, but then he said, "But I can't stop it. The process has already started." Many of the red lights in the United States had turned green but Piper knew that they were in a process of metamorphosis. They would never be humans again, and many more could die if she didn't work quickly. She surveyed the room, and noticed that the switch was connected to a radio like device. It was an Apple brand plug and almost made Piper laugh, and she connected it to the computer. Piper was willing to guess that this was what was broadcasting the timelord DNA code across the board. She took out her i-pod and started playing an old Green Day song.

"Is this really the time," the Doctor quipped, but Piper had already unplugged the cable from the computer. The dots all went out, and she plugged in own i-pod.

"W-what did you just do?" asked the Hero, dumbstruck.

"I just changed your frequency," she said, feeling victorious, "now the people of the world are listening to  _Basket Case-_ not turning into timelords." Then Piper remembered the dots that had already turned green. They had almost certainly died, and she felt awful about that. But she had just saved the majority of the world from having their humanity forcibly removed.

"But," he said, "but I was saving the world."

"No," the Doctor said, "Hero, you were destroying it."

"I wasn't," he said, "I was bringing back our race."

"Being alone can drive timelords insane," the Doctor said, "come with us. Please, Hero. I can help you back to the right path."

"You make me sound like a lost sheep," he said and then his eyes lit up, "because that's what you think I am, isn't it? You aren't the Doctor I knew."

"Calm down, Hero," she said, "calm down." He drew a pocketknife from his pants pocket. Piper wondered for a moment if it was a sonic pocketknife. The knife's edge lit up, glowing a neon green color.

"Put the knife down, Hero," the Doctor said in a soothing but stern voice. He backed up, past his desk and to the window. Piper felt chills dance down her spine as he carved a circle in the glass. The Doctor ran towards him to stop him from doing what they all knew he would. The Hero kicked the circle of glass over the edge as the Doctor shouted, "Hero, no!" He jumped through the hole and started to fall to the ground. Piper started to look through the window.  
"Don't," the Doctor said, "you don't want to see it." Piper averted her eyes before the Hero hit the pavement with a thud. She wondered if he could regenerate after this, but she doubted it. They were thirty floors up, and she presumed that his insides had splattered about the pavement. She shook the image from her mind.  
The Doctor's eyes were wet with tears and Piper hugged her tightly.

In the Doctor's ear she whispered, "I'm sorry." The Doctor just brought Piper into a tighter embrace, taking comfort in the girl's form against her own. Eventually, the Doctor pried herself out of Piper's hug and the two stepped back into the elevator.

* * *

"So who said that," Piper asked as they stepped through the TARDIS doors, in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"What," asked the Doctor, "a lot of people have said a lot of things. You've got to be more specific, Piper."

"The 'toying with the lives of mortals like a kid with a dollhouse' thing," she said, "that sounded a bit like something from the Odyssey or something. One of those epic Greek poems."

"I-I don't know," the Doctor said, obviously rifling through her mind for the author's name, "I suppose it was me."

"It was pretty," she said, though she immediately regretted it. The Doctor's eyes glinted with pride and a smirk crossed her face.

"I am pretty good," she said, "aren't I? You should write that down."

"Oh God," Piper said, "I think that I just inflated your already over-sized ego."

"My ego's the perfect size," she said, "I'm just that fantastic."

Piper rolled her eyes and proceeded to not write it down.

"So where are we going next?" she asked, "Somewhere in our own dimension, I presume?"

"Yeah," the Doctor said, "I think that would be best."

"How about we go to the past again," said Piper, "that would be fun."

"I know the perfect place," the Doctor replied, a look of genuine happiness in her eyes that Piper hadn't seen since they met the Hero.


	8. Tangled Web

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The TARDIS lands where the Doctor had planned to go, but danger is still lurking on the horizon.

"So," asked Piper, leaning against an interior wall of the TARDIS, "where did we end up this time?"

"If she actually sent us where I intended this time," said the Doctor, "we're in Manchester, England during the height of the Industrial Revolution." Piper opened up the TARDIS door, and was greeted by a green and hilly landscape. Snaking through the countryside was a roaring and muddy river, and on its banks was a large building with a waterwheel attached.

"Wow," Piper said, "I'm impressed. We actually landed where we planned to land."

"I'm just as shocked as you," said the Doctor, "more than nine hundred years of time and space and I've only ended up where I planned to go thrice." In the background the TARDIS made a noise that sounded almost agitated.

"I'm sorry," said the Doctor, "but it's true."

"Were you talking to your ship?" Piper asked.  
"Of course," the Doctor replied, "the TARDIS has a lot to say if you bother to listen to her." Piper didn't have a response.

"Oh and Piper," the Doctor replied with a devilish smirk.

"Yes," Piper asked cautiously, not liking wherever this was going.

"I know what they wore during this time period," she said, grinning. Piper paled in dread.

* * *

Piper adjusted the white apron she wore on top of her dingy cerulean dress. She pulled her final lock of hair into her loose French braid and put the ponytail holder around the bottom.

"I look like Alice from Wonderland," she grumbled, looking in the mirror.

"No," the Doctor said, "you look more like Dorothy."

"That girl from Kansas in the Wizard of Oz?" asked Piper. She could see the image in her head. The girl had girl brown pigtails, a white blouse, and a blue plaid dress.

"I don't see it," Piper replied, "maybe the braid would make me look like Katniss Everdeen, but Dorothy?"

The Doctor rolled her eyes and then said, "Come on, Katniss from Wonderland."

"Katniss from Wonderland? District 12 is far from a Wonderland," Piper joked. The Doctor sent her a glare.

"I'm done now," she said, "I swear." The Doctor sent her a look that clearly said,  _you'd better be,_ as they walked out of the TARDIS.

* * *

Piper took her first step out of the TARDIS into what seemed to be an English spring evening. Or maybe it was summer; Piper didn't really know the temperature range in England. She just knew that the air felt pleasant and fresh and the slight breeze felt nice and cool against her face. There were clouds high in the sky, and the sun was setting. The sky was painted various shades of pinks and purples and blues. Piper wondered vaguely how soft the grass would feel on her bare feet if they weren't covered in her black converses. In the distance, Piper saw a girl curled up into a little ball. She was sitting against a tree, her curly brown hair cascading down over her knees. Piper grabbed the doctor's hand and dragged her towards the girl.

Piper put her hand gently on the shoulder of the girl, who looked somewhere ten to twelve, and asked softly, "Are you alright?"

She turned her head, and deep green eyes bored into Piper's soul. They were red and slightly puffy. She'd obviously been crying.

"Who are you," she asked.

"My name's Piper," she replied, "but that's not important. Are you alright?"

"I-I'm alright," she said, "but my sister isn't. She's gone missing, just like the others." And shivers went down Piper's spine,  _just like the others._

"Looks like we've found our mystery of the day," the Doctor muttered. It was Piper's turn to glare.

"What is she wearing?" the girl asked. Clearly, the Doctor had brought attention to herself.

"I'm sorry, Piper said, "My friend's a bit strange. What's your name?"

"Miranda," she replied.

"And what is your sister's," asked Piper.

Miranda's green eyes flooded with happy memories and a terrible sadness, "Katie, her name's Katie."

"Where was she when she went missing?" asked Piper, not liking invading the girl's privacy in her time of grieving but needing as much information as she could get.

"She'd gone to work at the mill," said Miranda, a regretful look on her face, "I never should have let her take that job. People are disappearing left and right. Five days ago she disappeared, just the latest in a string of 'em." Near the end of the sentence her voice cracked, and Piper engulfed her in a hug.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, "I'm so sorry." The girl looked confused by the hug, unsure how to react to the platonic intimacy from a stranger, but she buried her head into Piper's shoulder. She obviously needed all the comfort she could find.

"We're going to find out what's going on," Piper said finally breaking their embrace, "and we're going to stop it."

"How," Miranda asked.

"We'll figure it out," Piper assured her and then she grabbed her Doctor by the hand.

* * *

"How are we going to do this," Piper gritted out in a whisper.

" _Improvise,"_ the Doctor replied, shrugging. If looks could kill, the Doctor would have regenerated a good dozen times before Piper ceased her glare.

* * *

Piper really wished that she had brought a flashlight, because breaking into a textile mill with only a sonic screwdriver and her cellphone light probably wasn't her brightest idea. Hell, the light from her cellphone was brighter than this idea. She held her cellphone to the lock as the doctor did whatever sonic-y thing she had to in order to make the door open.

"I hope that no demons jump out of these dark corners," Piper muttered, "this seems like a shitty horror flick." Then a thought crossed her mind.

"Oh god, what if we're the first five minutes of Supernatural," she said aloud. The Doctor gave her a puzzled look.

"I think we can handle it," the Doctor said with a look of pride, "as long as there are no spiders, I'm fairly good." Piper filed arachnophobia away into the never-ending list of the Doctor's curiosities.

Piper put her phone into the pocket of her apron, and looked around the sonic screwdriver lit room. It had an eerie blue glow due to the lighting, but that wasn't the only creepy part. Piper supposed that a field of sunflowers filled with teddy bears could potentially be creepy after dark, but a textile mill, lit only by a ghastly blue light was the scariest horror movie like sight Piper had ever encountered.

Various large spinning wheels sat in columns from one wall to the other. The thread protruded from the wall and stretched to the ceiling like an elegant spider's web. It was various different shades, white to black and all the shades of gray in between, and every shade of the rainbow. In the daylight it might have looked beautiful, but now the pieces of fabric looked more like the abandoned tapestries of some long forgotten empire. Large spools of deserted thread sat at the ends of the spinning stations.

Piper brushed her hand against the doctor's to assure herself that she was in fact still there. It is noteworthy that yes, the Doctor was in fact still there. They reached the end of the wall saw a large door. Above it was a sign that said in bold, white letters,  **DO NOT ENTER**.

"I suppose we've found our spot," the doctor said, "are you ready?" Piper almost allowed herself to say  _no_ in a small and cowardly voice. She scolded herself, she'd faced aliens who turned beings to stone, corrupt governments, a life-sucking phoenix and her own mother! She couldn't cower at the thought of entering a dark room.

Instead in a voice a bold voice, she said, "I'm ready to go."

The doctor stepped through the forbidden door, closely followed by Piper.

The room was strangely empty, and Piper wondered if perhaps there wasn't anything of interest in it, until the doctor whispered, "Look up." Above them were catacombs of cobwebs. They was almost beautiful in a terrifying way. Protruding from the ceiling were human stalactites, like caterpillars only half cocooned. Their bare heads stuck out from the bottom. The women's long hair fell below, making them look similar to the troll dolls that Piper had once played with. She let out a high pitched squeak of fear when she saw the ringmaster of this terrible circus. An elephantine spider lurked in the shadows, and it was preparing to pounce on them. Piper's breaths came short and shallow, and she felt something slide into her hand. She looked down, and between her tanned fingers sat the Doctor's sonic screwdriver. She looked to the Doctor who put a finger to her lips and mouth  _hide._

"Well, hello," the doctor said, taking a step towards the gigantic, humanoid spider. Piper slunk to the nearest corner.

"What," the thing said, in a voice too silky and gorgeous to belong to a terrifying monster, "a human that knows the language of the arachnids?"

"I am not a human," the Doctor said, taking another step towards the woman-spider and her sharp fangs and long, wild gray hair, "I am a Time Lord."

"I thought Time Lords extinct," the thing replied.

"I could say the same for arachnids," the Doctor replied, toying gently with her belt loop.

"What are you doing on earth?" asked the spider-woman.

"I could ask the same of you," she said.

"If you are going to continue to answer my questions with questions," the thing replied in her silky smooth voice, "I am going to hang you from the ceiling and the Time Lords will truly be extinct." Piper's breath hitched in her throat. Piper wasn't sure if the thing was joking, she wasn't even sure if she could pull off her threat, but it still rattled her.

"But then you'd never hear my offer," said the Doctor playfully. Piper wanted to strangle her. How was she managing that tone when she was terrified? Piper knew that she was afraid of spiders; how was she even coping? Piper wanted to reach out and shake her out of this.

"And what would that be?" she asked, "What could the last of the Time Lords offer poor little Arachne, last of the arachnids."

"I could take you to a planet to rebuild your race," she said, "a nice new one, without life. You could start from scratch. But only if you promise to release those humans."

"Though it's an appealing offer," Arachne drawled, "I think that I'll have to pass. You see, a Time Lord could host my babies for years,  _for eternity._ I'm not passing that up." She opened her mouth wide and spewed silk at the Doctor, coating her. Piper almost let out a cry, but bit her lip and kept it in. All these people needed her.  _The Doctor needed her._

She kept her eyes locked on the spider, who had knocked the Doctor out. Arachne then shot a string of silk to the ceiling, hoisted herself up, and hung the Doctor like an ornament on a Christmas tree. Piper felt the wall, and suddenly realized that they were coated in spider silk as well. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself.

_You can do this, Piper,_ she told herself,  _the Doctor needs you._ She grabbed on to the spider's silk coating the walls around her and willed herself not to be disgusted. She willed herself to ignore it. The silk held firm, and she suddenly remembered something that she'd learned once, that spider's silk was stronger than steel. Piper hoped so, for everyone's sake. She made herself a firm handhold and started to climb.

* * *

She reached the fairly low ceiling after two minutes of climbing. She grabbed onto the cloudy sky of cobwebs that coated the ceiling. Then, Piper started doing a monkey bars like motion to cross the sea of spider's webs and suspended humans to get to her Doctor. She saw blonde hair cascading from a cocooned body and a Yankees cap stuck on a thick ponytail of hair. She took out the sonic screwdriver, while holding tightly to the ceiling with her right hand. She wrapped her legs around the Doctor's lower body, and started cut the top of her cage. After a minute of holding down the button and hoping that somehow the sonic would cut the various strings of silk, Piper felt the final strand break.

She grabbed the ceiling tightly with both hands, and she held the Doctor in her ankles, praying to whatever deity might exist that she wouldn't drop her. Their adversary, however, chose that precise moment to realize something was wrong. Piper saw the eight-legged creature stalking towards them with a murderous glint in her eight black eyes.

"Shit," she muttered, and she drew the sonic screwdriver. She could feel the strength in both her right hand starting to fail. Piper could feel the muscles in her legs starting to give as well. Arachne was within feet of them when Piper aimed at her torso and shot a bolt of sonic. It hit her straight on the red marking on her abdomen. The creature let out a wail of pain, and her body convulsed. She fell from the ceiling onto her head, and her brains spattered on the floor. Piper laughed in relief, then she felt the Doctor's body slip from the grasp of her feet. The doctor landed in the spider's remains with a plopping noise.

" _Oh god, oh god, oh god, oh god,"_ she thought desperately.

"Doctor," she called, "oh god, Doctor."

"I'm alright," her voice came, "I'm awake. What did I miss? spiders silk!?" Piper laughed in relief and humor. She had saved her Doctor and now she was so comically confused.

Piper swung to the wall, and then climbed down. She used the sonic screwdriver to release the doctor from her full body cage. They sat beside each other, far away from the remains of Arachne.

The Doctor looked to the ceiling and asked, "Do you suppose they're alright?"

Piper remembered Miranda's words, " _Five days ago she disappeared, just the latest in a string of 'em_."

"No," Piper said in terror, "th-they're all dead." She looked to the ceiling of the mill, a graveyard of spider's silk.

"They all died," she said, "all of them, and we couldn't save them."

"But you prevented it from happening again," the Doctor said, " _You saved me."_ This time it was Piper that needed comfort. She desperately hugged the doctor. She dug her head into the doctor's plaid clad shoulder and she inhaled her scent, vanilla and metal and something that was distinctly  _her._ At the moment, she also smelled of Piper's salty tears.

"You can't always save everyone," the doctor said, rubbing her hand over Piper's back, "I'd know."

"Does it ever stop hurting," she choked out. The Doctor paused a moment, the truth and the lie fighting for dominance. Piper could see her struggle. Would she tell her the comforting lie or the painful truth?

"No," she said, and Piper knew that the painful truth had won out. She just touched her fingers to the Doctor's curly blonde hair. Piper crashed her lips onto her Doctor's own. They tasted sweet, a bit like vanilla, and they moved in sync, all the romantic tension from their various adventures reaching a boiling point. She could feel the Doctor's tongue lightly lapping at her bottom lip. And they kissed and kissed, pressing their bodies together on the hard, dirt ground. It was beautiful and terrible and every single feeling in the entire universe and Piper wondered what it might have been like in a less emotional situation. Then she remembered that she was probably what one might consider "emotionally compromised" right now. She broke the kiss.

"I'm sorry," she said, her face turning red, "heat of the moment, you know." And the Doctor just nodded and sent her a sad smile. They sat for a moment in understanding silence. Piper's tears had ceased, but she could still feel them, clawing at the back of her mind, begging to be set free. Tears at her own helplessness, her own powerlessness, tears for these poor lives that had been wasted, tears for their families, and tears for Miranda and Katie. She grasped the Doctor's hand firmly, and they walked slowly back to the TARDIS, through the blackness of the English night. The stars were their only companion, watching and sharing in Piper's sorrow.


	9. You've Got to Be Kidding Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Piper and the Doctor become trapped in a television station and end up participating in the games. It turns out, the prize isn't cash, it's the right to live. Oh shit.

The Doctor awoke to the sound of people hustling and bustling. She opened her eyes and saw dazzling lights.

A dark-skinned woman grabbed her hand and whispered to her, "Come on. We don't want to make them angry." She saw what appeared to be the set of a game show, with various people standing in a circle around an odd creature. They all seemed oddly mortified, as if they were playing for their lives as opposed to for a sum of cash. They were each standing at individual, metal podiums with their names written on the front. One, in the middle, was signed, "The Doctor." She gulped, and walked up to her designated podium.

There were six people in a semi-circle around her. Directly in front of her sat a strange creature. It had the head of a woman, the body of a lion and large, feathery, angelic wings. In the middle of her neck sat a beautiful necklace with a large, cerulean jewel in the center.

"A sphinx," her brain supplied, but her brain was too hazy to remember where the creature was from. She still didn't remember how she had ended up here, either. She felt groggy and disoriented.

"Welcome to  _Extreme Trivia,_ " the sphinx said in an altogether too perky voice, more like Dolores Umbridge than a traditional game show host, "you know the rules. Three strikes and you're out. The last one standing is the winner. Everyone ready to trivia!" Beside her, the woman's breath hitched. On her opposite side, a woman's eyes widened like a bug. The Doctor suspected that they were playing for more than just cash prizes. They were playing for their lives. That only left three questions. Where was she? How did she get there? And most importantly, where was Piper?

* * *

Piper awoke to warm air billowing through her chocolate brown hair, and the sound of a hair drier. She opened her eyes, and saw a robot standing above her. Piper let out a scream of fright and confusion. She was lying on what seemed like a chair at the dentist's office, but there were restraints holding both her arms and legs to the chair. She attempted to flail about, but made no progress.

"What the fuck is going on!" she shouted.

"Quiet," the robot said, in a voice that displayed no emotions, "I am giving you a make-over." Piper would have been less confused, and maybe even less mortified had she been told the robot was going to kill her. Or dissect her, or even experiment on her. This made no sense. She couldn't even remember how she had gotten here. Everything before she had awoken up was a blur.

"Why," she asked, trying to get her bearings, "why are you giving me a make-over? What's going on?" The robot seemed vaguely humanoid. A bit wider than an average human, silver, and bald, but human shaped. It had red lights where a person's eyes normally are and they gave Piper the subconscious desire to exorcise it.

"You are a contestant on  _The Earth's Next Top Model,"_ the robot said. Piper almost wanted to laugh. That's what she was being picked at and plucked for? A reality television show?

"What happens if I try to leave," she asked cautiously.

Then the robot replied, "I will kill you." Piper's breath hitched. So this was it, she would be forced to compete in a modeling competition to the death. This was so surreal, and exactly what she should have expected after she started traveling with the Doctor. And then it hit her. Where was her Doctor?

* * *

"Amanda," to the the woman on the end, the one that had taken the Doctor's hand, the sphinx said in that same poisoned apple tone of voice, "This is your first question. When did the American Revolutionary War start?" Four options flashed onto a large screen behind the sphinx: 1779, 1801, 1668, 1775." The woman looked like a deer in the head lights, her warm, chocolate brown eyes widening.

"1779," she stuttered, her rich voice devoid of confidence.

"I'm sorry," the sphinx replied, a look, a total caricature of sympathy set in on her harsh features, "that is incorrect. The correct answer was 1775. You have two more strikes." Her shoulders slumped.

"Adelaide," the sphinx said to the curly haired ginger woman beside Amanda, "You're next. Your question is: what was the band  _Consigned to Darkness_ 's best-selling single?"

" _Fantastical realities_ ," she said, a wild look in her ice blue eyes. She hadn't even allowed the options to pop up on the board.

"That is correct, Adelaide," the sphinx replied, "congratulations." The Doctor looked to the man beside her. He was tall, with tanned skin, a slightly hooked nose and curly, black hair. He was also next in the line-up.

"Elijah," the sphinx said, turning her head to face him, "your question is: which of these classic novels was later made into a musical?" The options flashed on the screen: Jane Eyre, The Fault in Our Stars, The Odyssey, and Les Miserablés.

"That miserable one," he said desperately, "Less Miserables?"

"That is correct," she said, "though your pronunciation is abysmal, Elijah." He breathed a sigh of relief, and the sphinx turned her attentions to the Doctor.

"The Doctor," she asked, "which equation is has been compared to a Shakespearean sonnet?" The options quickly flashed across the board: Euler's Identity, Gelfond's Constant, and two others that the Doctor didn't care to read. She immediately answered, "Euler's identity."

"That is correct," the sphinx responded. The Doctor tried to focus. Obviously, someone wanted her here. She wondered if she should answer the questions incorrectly just to see what would happen. As she tossed the idea around, the next two people answered their questions incorrectly. Despite the fact that she really should answer her questions wrong, she couldn't give up her pride and just do it.

The next time that the sphinx asked her, "Which famous fantasy series introduced readers to Hogwarts?" She answered Harry Potter because she couldn't force herself to answer wrong.

* * *

Piper was dressed in a lovely lavender dress that contrasted nicely with her tanned skin, chocolate brown hair, and varicolored eyes. She itched lightly at her foot, which was covered in tall, silver heels. She looked gorgeous and was absolutely miserable and terrified. She strutted down the catwalk, into the bedazzling lights. She nearly tripped over her feet in her sky-high heels on her way to the other contestants. There were about eight of them, all with different skin tones and hair colors and dresses. A woman in a black pantsuit and a dazzling smile walked towards them and looked to the cameras.

"Hello people of Earth," her chocolaty voice said, "and welcome to this week's episode of  _The Earth's Next Top Model._ Today, one of these lucky girls will be going home a winner. The others won't be going home at all. They will compete in a serious of events in order to determine who is," her voice took on a greater resonance, " _The Earth's Next Top Model!"_ Piper felt her stomach drop because this really could be it. The Doctor was nowhere to be found, and if she wanted to live, she would have to defeat these nine gorgeous girls in a beauty pageant. Piper felt embarrassed that her life depended on a beauty contest: something so vain, so shallow, so like the girls that used to bully her. But if this was the only way she was going to live, Piper would do her best. She would be the most pageant ready of any of them, and then the Doctor would put an end to whatever insanity was going on in this studio. Piper put on a fake, glistening smile for the camera and told herself, "I can do this."

* * *

"Doctor," the sphinx said, "what is the wing speed velocity of an unladen European swallow?"

"Forty-three beats a second," the Doctor quipped.

"That is correct," the sphinx said in her high-pitched, candy-coated voice, "Amanda." The black haired woman turned her brown eyes to face her questioner.

"What is the name of the fourth moon of Apollo?" she asked. The screen displayed the answer choices: Daphne, Chrysothemis, Hyacinth, and Themisto."

"Daphne?" the woman said, though it was more a question than an answer.

"I'm sorry," she said, "that is incorrect. The correct answer was Hyacinth. You now have three strikes, Amanda. It is time for termination." The woman's chocolate eyes widened in terror and the jewel on the sphinx's breast lit up like a torch. The Doctor was certain that if she let the energy leave the necklace then it would kill Amanda. The Doctor drew her sonic screwdriver and stepped between the sphinx and the girl.

"Let her be," said the Doctor, "or I'll use this." She hoped that the sphinx wasn't aware that it was just a screwdriver.

"Get out of the way, Doctor," said the sphinx.

"I don't think that I will," she said, "now I suggest you let these people go if you'd like to leave this place with your life."

"Are you threatening me, Doctor?" she asked with a patronizing smile on her face. The Doctor glared and let that answer the question.

"How cute," she said, "threatening me with a screwdriver." The Doctor unleashed a bolt of sonic from her screwdriver and it went straight into the gem, causing the glow to cease.

"You've broken it," the sphinx screamed, a ravenous look on her face, clutching her chest. The Doctor ran towards the back door and unlocked it.

"Everybody out!" she ordered and the people immediately scrambled out the door.

The Doctor smiled at the sphinx.

"I should kill you," the sphinx said, all pretense of kindness stripped from her voice.

"But you won't," the Doctor said with a cocky smirk on her face, "you need me for something, and I'm no use dead. Now if you'll excuse me, I have someone I need to find. Sayonara." And with that, the Doctor exited the set of  _Extreme Trivia._

* * *

Piper took a deep breath as the host's words echoed in the back of her mind.  _The contestants will be judged on the three core areas: appearance, poise, and the talent._ Now, it was her turn to go over and "strut her stuff." And she was nervous. One girl had drawn, another had performed a short monologue from a television show, another had told jokes, and Piper had no idea what she was supposed to do. Piper didn't consider herself a particularly talented person, especially not in the face of death. As the last girl before her performed a short dance, Piper raked through her brain for something that she could do.

She had a passible singing voice, she knew, but what could she sing? Would the words come out at all? Piper finally settled on an old favorite of hers that seemed to summarize her travels with the Doctor.

She took a step into the spotlight and took a deep, low breath in preparation. She opened her mouth, and in her light soprano voice she started to sing.

_I'm sailing away,_

_Set an open course for the virgin sea,_

Her voice was soft and uncertain. Her vibrato was trembling, and shifting uncontrollably around the note. She willed herself to focus on the song, the melody, the lyrics, the meaning, and to block out the world.

_'Cause I've got to be free,_

_Free to face the life that's ahead of me,_

She could see the Doctor's smirking face and her eccentric ways.

_On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard,_

_We'll search for tomorrow on every shore,_

She could see all their adventures together. She could see their tomorrow.

_And I'll try, Oh Lord I'll try, to carry on_

They'll get through this. She's certain of it.

_I look to the sea,_

_Reflections in the waves spark my memory,_

She could feel her voice start to crack, but she willed it not to. She could feel the nostalgia of this verse, but she willed her voice not crack. She felt it tremble, but she willed it to hold firm. She willed her vibrato to stay light and consistent.

_Some happy, some sad,_

_I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had,_

_We lived happily forever, so the story goes,_

_But somehow we missed out on the pot of gold_

_But we'll try best that we can to carry on_

The song was starting to build, and she allowed her small voice to crescendo.

_A gathering of angels appeared above my head,_

_They sang to me this song of hope and this is what they said,_

_They said come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me,_

She could feel herself truly getting into it by the chorus. It was her favorite part.

_Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me,_

_I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise,_

_We climbed aboard their starship, we headed for the skies_

And Piper remembered. She sailed away with the Doctor in her beautiful blue starship.

_Singing come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me_

_Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me…._

She allowed her voice to slow fade away with her last chorus. Piper gave a small smile to the audience and exited the stage, hoping that she had done things right. The announcer came forward at the end of her performance.

"That was the last act of the night," she said in her same comforting alto voice, "and now for the results." She held up a large envelope and a blue gem.

"In this envelope are the names of all the losers," she said, "and this is the crystal that will be used to eliminate them. Are you ready?" None of the girls said anything.

"Alright," the woman said, "First is Lacy." The blonde girl that had danced for her talent let out a small whimper. The gem sent a blue beam of light, much like a bolt from a sonic screwdriver, at her and the girl disappeared. Piper bit her lip to stop the scream that wanted to let itself lose. She hoped to whatever god may exist that the Doctor would come soon.

"Drew," the woman said, and then an Asian woman with black ringlets and a face coated in makeup started yelling at her.

"You can't do this to me!" she said, "I am Drew Tanaka, do you know how gorgeous I am, how important I am?!" Piper would have rolled her eyes had these been normal circumstances, but now she just felt sorry for the poor woman. She was promptly turned into a dust bunny.

"Katrina," she said as a beautiful black woman with curly brown hair let out an anguished cry. Piper averted her eyes as she was eliminated.

"Anna," the woman said and a girl with caramel hair closed her eyes and bit her lips before joining the rest.

"Let's see who's booted out of the final three first," said the woman and Piper looked around. It was just herself, the announcer, and two others, a tanned woman with dark brown hair and a black woman with straight, black hair.

"Alexa," the woman said and the tanned woman beside Piper wrapped her arms around tightly around herself. She closed her honey eyes and Piper looked at the ground.

"And now," the woman said, "the moment you've all been waiting for," dramatic music started playing in the background, "Earth's Next Top Model is- Victoria!" Piper's opponent's face lit up and she started to laugh. She had lived. Piper's breath caught in her throat- that meant, that meant that she would die.

"Piper," she said, "I'm sorry, dear, but second place doesn't get a prize." The backdoor burst open and Piper saw a face that made her heart stop.

The Doctor's curly hair was bobbing behind her as she shouted, "Piper!"

"Doctor!" Piper cried, but she felt something odd against her back. It seemed as though she was falling, and then the world was black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The lyrics are taken from a song called Come Sail Away by Styx.


	10. The Game Show of Doom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When the Doctor finds out that Piper wasn't killed, she's willing to rip the universe apart to find her.

"Piper," the Doctor cried one last time as her companion dissolved before her eyes. Piper was gone, the Doctor hadn't had the chance to save her, or even tell her how she felt. The Doctor was ready to scream in frustration, or grief, but probably a combination of the two. She looked to the floor where Piper McLean once stood expecting to see a pile of ashes, but she was greeted by no such sight. There was no pile of ash and dust characteristic of a disintegration ray, not a single speck. The Doctor felt a surge of hope, that meant that Piper hadn't died, she'd simply been teleported somewhere. But where that might be, who had that sort of technology, and why they wanted losing game-show contestants, the Doctor couldn't say.

"They aren't dead," the Doctor thought, her face lighting up like the sky on the Fourth of July, "they've been teleported."

"Who exactly are you," the host asked, with look of intense confusion, as if her grass had suddenly been turned pink.

The Doctor stepped forward and plucked the gem from her hands, "That isn't your concern." She placed it in the left pocket of her red plaid shirt, opposite to the one in which she kept her sonic screwdriver.

The woman stepped forward and said, "You can't just-" The Doctor cut her off with a glare as icy cold as the earth's poles and the woman wisely shut her mouth as the Doctor left.

* * *

Piper awoke with aching arms, sleeping legs, and a head ache so bad she wondered if Athena might spring from her brain any moment now. She groggily opened her eyes and tried to orient herself. She was surrounded by hundreds of people hanging by their wrists, half-dead, with fluids pumping into their bodies through strange IVs. She didn't remember how she'd gotten here, or where her Doctor was, and she was afraid. This was obviously an experimentation lab, and they were the guinea pigs. And the ones in charge obviously didn't care about being humane. Piper felt herself start to panic and she flailed about in her bonds. This wasn't how she was going to die. She wouldn't die as a lab-rat, surrounded by her pathetic, beat-down kinsmen. She let out a scream, perhaps someone, anyone, would come to her rescue, though in hindsight, it wasn't probably the best idea. There was almost certainly a staff member of whatever this establishment was running about, and they wouldn't take kindly to her mortified screams.

She saw a young woman in a white lap-coat walking towards her. She let out a sigh of relief, but it was premature. The woman took out an enormous needle with green fluid in it and Piper screamed again before she felt the needle penetrate her arm and the world was black once again.

* * *

The Doctor slunk about in the metal and ominous corridors. They passed various large metal doors labeled things like "The Battle of Wits", "Love Sucks", "The Ultimate Make-over", and "Monopoly: Extreme", before coming across a set of enormous double doors labeled "Control Room." They were locked, but a quick bit of sonicing did the trick and they entered the large hall. There were many rows of desks, with laptop computers setting on top and people working and spinning about in swivel chairs. At the head of the room sat a large super-computer, with cables and wires sticking out every which way and buttons and glowing dots all over it. At the very top, was a large screen, larger bigger than a white board but much smaller than one in a movie theater.

The Doctor strutted down the aisle and towards the computer. She took out her sonic screwdriver and started tinkering with the device, trying to set up communications with however sat on the opposite end of the teleportation system. The man who was sitting directly beside the computer sent her a confused look.

He loudly asked the whole room, "Is she supposed to be doing that?" Some people rolled their eyes and continued to work, but a few others looked around the room and noticed her perched by the computer system.

"No," said a woman that seemed to be a superviser, "security!"

"And, got it!" the Doctor said with a triumphant look on her face. The screen started to show the other end of the teleporter. She continued to fiddle around with the device for a moment before she established two-way auditory communication as well. The employees around the room seemed to be in a state of shock, and many of their jaws hung agape. A few looked angry or embarrassed, as if their terrible secret had been unearthed, the skeletons they kept in their closets finally being brought to light.

The Doctor took a few steps back to see what exactly she had stumbled upon. Over a thousand years of time and space, the Doctor had seen some pretty terrifying things. The fall of empires, the murder of species, slavery, torture, war, the deaths of friends, her race, and many more, but now she had another atrocity to add to her infinite list. On the screen, the Doctor could see at least twenty people, and she assumed that there were many more. They were lining the walls in Mid Evil prison style shackles, and most looked half-dead. They all had various IV's hooked up to their bodies, pumping odd and dangerous looking chemicals into their bodies. The Doctor felt as though she was going to be ill.

Then, she looked more closely at a certain mocha skinned woman towards the middle of the row. She had braided pigtails and was wearing a lavender dress. She was twitching around in pain, which wasn't a fantastic sign, but she was alive.

"Piper," she thought, and then the Doctor took a final look around the picture of the room. She told herself that she could do it, she could save Piper, and hopefully, all those people as well. She clutched the gem in her hand and fiddled with its hard-drive, making sure that it could transport her back when she was done.

The Doctor held the gem out in front of her chest, and her molecules dissipated.

* * *

She reappeared in the vast hallways of that testing area. She walked for a long while through the twisting and curving corridors lined with dying people and she was vaguely reminded of catacombs and a short story by Edgar Allen Poe. She was surprised that she hadn't ran into any of the beings that are in charge of this facility, and she wondered for a moment who they might be. What would anyone have to gain by experimenting on humans? Her mind offers up thousands of disturbing possibilities, but she pushed them away. She didn't want to think about the terrible things they might have done to Piper. A few corners later, the Doctor saw the glittery dress Piper was wearing twinkle in the fluorescent lights. Her breath hitched, but she continued to walk towards her.

Apart from a nasty bruise on her head, presumably from falling over after being dossed with anesthetic or a similar occurrence, and the IVs sticking out of her arm, Piper looked perfectly healthy. The Doctor gently removed the IVs and then set to work undoing her bonds. The sonic screwdriver quickly freed her and the Doctor gathered her in her arms. She paused a moment, considering her next course of action, when she heard loud and frantic footsteps.

"I saw someone," a voice with a slight robotic quality said, it sounded loud and near, "I swear, they were walking about, and it wasn't one of us."

"That's ridiculous," said another, similar voice, and now it sounded even closer, "no one is here-" The two humanoid robots turned the corner and caught a glimpse of the Doctor and Piper. Whatever he was going to say, the rest of his sentence died on his lips as he turned the corner and saw the Doctor standing there with another woman in her arms.

"I told you," the first said, but the second took out a taser like device and aimed it at the Doctor. She was hit with a bolt of electricity and she heard their voices as she faded into unconsciousness.

* * *

"Doctor, Doctor, Doctor," said a voice as she awakened, "I'm so glad that I brought you here. I haven't seen you in years." She opened her eyes with a jolt. Before her stood a black haired man with a thick, curly beard and ominous golden eyes.

"Kronos," she snarled, "I should have known that you'd survived." She tried to come to grips with where she was. She was seated in a metal chair with metal binding her arms to the sides. They were in a small room with metal walls and little scenery, except for the small window that showed the vastness of space, constellations of stars twinkling in the distance. In the corner sat a computer, similar to the one in the Control Room. The Doctor filed that away for future reference. Piper lay discarded and ill on a nearby table.

"Well I am a titan," he said with an inhumane grin, "the titan god of time."

"God of time," she said as if the words tasted foul on her tongue, "you aren't the god of anything, much less time. You had to steal a TARDIS from my people."

"So did you," he said in complete nonchalance, "we aren't so different, Doctor."

The Doctor wasn't in the mood for Kronos'  _join me on the dark side, rule the world, be a titan_ speech today, so she went right to the point.

"Why do you want these people," she said, "why are you experimenting on humans? This is an abomination."

"I'm figuring out the perfect combination of DNA to resurrect my race," he said, "humans would be the perfect building blocks for titans. I could bring them back. You'll witness the recreation of my race. And then, my new titans and I, we'll rule the universe, just as we were always destined to." There was a mad look of both hope and power in his eyes, one that the Doctor remembered well. The Doctor felt bile rise within her as she remembered the Hero's last day, when he'd turned into that monster.

Kronos starred out the window, and the Doctor saw her chance. She bent her right wrist into an uncomfortable position, and she tried to lean forward. She worked her wrist into the inside of her shirt and gently pulled out her screwdriver, wincing from the strain of using her wrist this way. She grasped it like a life line, and silently undid the bonds on her hands, placing her screwdriver back into her pocket.

"And I've finally got it right," he said, turning back to face her with a mocking look on his face, "I'm going to try it on your friend." She almost burst out of her chair right then, but she held herself down. She couldn't blow her cover now. She had to formulate a plan to get out of this mess.

"Bring in the formula," Kronos said, and another humanoid robot burst through the door with a giant needle filled with pink liquid.

"As soon as this enters her little bloodstream," Kronos said, an arrogant tone in his voice, "she'll start her metamorphosis, and when it's through, we'll have ourselves another titan." Kronos turned away from her and faced the robot and Piper. The Doctor hopped out of her chair, and ran silently to the computer in the corner of the room, hacking into the system and setting up a self-destruct. Kronos had grabbed the needle himself and was starting to walk towards Piper.

"Kronos," the Doctor said, looking to him, "step away from her. Step away from her or I'll blow this whole bloody ship up. This is your warning: Don't mess with the people I love."

"You wouldn't," he said, completely calling her bluff, "if you set it off you kill all these people that I've tortured, yourself, and your precious girl. We both know that you won't." And with that, Kronos stabbed the needle into Piper and though she was still unconscious, her body convulsed on the table.

"It's going to be wonderful," he said, "a new Titania with new titans! Oh, we're coming back, Doctor, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

The Doctor looked back to the computer, and she tried to rip through the grief and the panic and come up with a logical solution. She ran forward, towards Piper's pained form, and pushed Kronos to the ground. She grabbed her, and ran back to the computer.

"You wouldn't," Kronos said, starring her down, but the Doctor had already removed the gem from her pocket.

"I don't do third chances, Kronos," she said. The Doctor clicked the self-destruct on the computer, and as the explosion started, the gem teleported them far, far away from the carnage and inferno.


	11. With You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I do not own either the quotes from Panic! at the Disco and fun.'s C'mon or from The Beatle's Baby It's You.

Piper opened her eyes and found herself in what appeared to be the sick bay of the TARDIS. She surveyed the room for the Doctor and found her sitting right beside her with a worried expression on her face. Piper coughed lightly in response.

"Piper, you had me worried sick. I had to do actual doctor-y stuff to save you," the Doctor babbled, "medical doctor-y things."

Piper's body ached all over, but she cracked a grin at that. A terrified look flashed into her Doctor's eyes, as if she had just had a terrifying realization, a soldier finally stumbling into the hell of battle.

"I-I need to take you home." The Doctor stuttered. Piper knew that she had never heard her Doctor stutter. Piper was almost sure that the Doctor had never stuttered before in her life.

"What?" Piper asked, suddenly grasping what her Doctor had just said.

"I have to take you home," she said, a new and sudden confidence rushing into her voice, "I almost lost you back there. I can't risk that happening again."

Piper couldn't believe what she was hearing. After all that they'd been through, the Doctor was just going to leave her?

"Then may we stay lost on our way home," she quoted in anger.

"Who is that?" The Doctor asked, an impressed yet pained look on her face.

"It doesn't matter," Piper snapped, "it means that I'd rather be lost in time and space with you than anywhere without you! I don't want to go home! I don't care if it's safe or not, I won't leave you, you fucking idiot." Piper sat up in her hospital style bed as a small pang of pain shot through her body, she ignored it as she willed herself to stand. Her body ached slightly, but she pretended that it didn't exist.

"Piper," the Doctor said, worry tainting her tone, "You really shouldn't be standing at this point."

"I'm fine," Piper said, because besides the slight ache, she was. She no longer seemed to have any serious and lasting problems from her "stay" on the titans' space ship.

Piper smiled and then asked, "So where are we going next?"

"Piper," the Doctor reasoned, "You're in no shape for a life-threatening adventure at this point."

"Then let's go somewhere without one," Piper suggested, "Just the two of us."

"I don't think the TARDIS would like that," the Doctor said, her grin returning.

"The non-life-threatening part, or the just the two of us part," asked Piper.

"Maybe both," the Doctor mused, but then she corrected herself, "Mainly the non-life-threatening part, though. I'm not sure she's ever taken me somewhere like that."

"Maybe like a concert," Piper suggested, "Those are unlikely to have alien baddies at them."

"I don't know, Piper," said the Doctor, "I've run into "alien baddies" in some pretty unlikely places." Piper bit her lip to avoid the ache in her legs that was starting to grow from her standing on them.

"Come on," Piper said, elbowing her lightly, "Who's your favorite band."

"I'd have to say  _the Beatles,"_ said the Doctor.

"I've never actually listened to much of them," Piper replied, "But I've heard that a lot of people really, really like them."

"You've never listened to  _the Beatles?"_ asked the Doctor. Piper shook her head in response.

"Blasphemy," the Doctor exclaimed. Piper sent her a light glare.

"Well that seals it," her Doctor said, grabbing her hand to lead her to the control room, "I know what we're going to do today."

* * *

 

"1963," The Doctor said, stepping out of the TARDIS onto the grass. The Doctor said something about the name of the country and the venue, but Piper wasn't listening. She was listening to the cheering of the large crowd about twenty feet in front of them and the strumming of the guitars.

_Sha la la la la la la la_

"Oh good," said Annabeth, "This is one of my favorites." Piper's legs ached slightly but the music was a bit hypnotic.

_It's not the way you smile that touched my heart. (sha la la la la)_

_It's not the way you kiss that tears me apart._

Piper couldn't see the band at all; they were completely covered by the crowd. But she didn't mind too terribly much. They leaned on the TARDIS and the Doctor sang lightly along to the melody. She wasn't the world's most amazing singer, but Piper enjoyed it. She allowed herself to melt into the strain. The words flowing like the galaxy- the poetry of time and space.

_Uh oh,_

_It doesn't matter what they say,_

_I know I'm gonna love you any old way._

_What can I do, when it's true._

The Doctor smiled at her, a big, happy smile and Piper laughed in response. She finally seemed legitametly happy.

_Don't want nobody, nobody, 'cause baby, it's you. (sha la la la la la la)_

_Baby, it's you. (sha la la la la la la)_

Piper was momentarily taken was the music, and the words. She kissed Annabeth softly on the mouth as the words  _don't leave me all alone_ were sung and the final chords were played.

Softly, the Doctor said, "I love you, Piper."

"I love you too," Piper said, and she meant every syllable. She heard a scream from the middle of the crowd.

"What is that thing!" someone shouted. Then, it was the Doctor's turn to laugh.

"Back to the daily grind?" she asked, then with more concern she asked, "Are you alright enough for this?"

"Of course," Piper said, rolling her eyes, "I'll be just fine as long as I'm with you."


End file.
